Grammar Wednesday: POV–3rd person

June 19, 2013
Written by adrianjsmith

Third person is my favorite person to write in. I have to say, I absolutely love and adore it. Recently people have said they don’t like third person because they are distanced from the character and can’t get into their mind. Also, people say that it creates confusion as to what is really going on and that they can figure out the entire novel too quickly with third person. My answer to that, is whatever they were reading, it wasn’t done right.

This is my preferred person to write in.

Rusty walked along the soft carpet, quickly going from the living room into the bedroom. She jumped up onto the desktop, where it rattled until her meager body weight settled down. Licking her paws and cleaning her face, Rusty watched her mother carefully. Her mother slept soundly in the bed just as the early morning rays of the sun started to shine through the window, and Rusty knew it was time. She stepped over to the edge of the plastic desk and leaned back on her haunches before pushing up into the calendar tacked to the wall. Biting the spiral metal that held it together, she waited until she heard the rustle from the sheets behind her. Her mother was waking up. She went back to all for paws and started to chew on the paper, stopping and giving a meow when her mother shouted across the room, “Rusty! Stop it!”

This is third person…well, third animal, in this case. (Also, this happens to me EVERY morning.) Next week, third person omniscient. Yes, I will explain the difference then.

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6 Comments

  1. Michelle Liew

    I prefer writing in the third person too…..I have enough empathetic distance with the character’s feelings! Checking your blog out more, Adrian!

    • Adrian

      =D I much prefer third person but I love having multiple opinions or thoughts of everything so that might be why.

  2. Kate Sparkes

    I prefer to write in first, but I can enjoy reading in third person limited when it’s done well. Very different styles, but both can be used effectively. It’s always interesting (to me, anyway) to think about how a story would have changed if it was written the other way.

    • Adrian

      Yeah it is. I usually write third person omniscient so it would make a massive difference. One novel I wrote it would make much of a difference. =P

  3. Emily Witt

    People say that? I’m kind of the opposite, I would much prefer to read in third person so that I have more information than a first person narrator can give me. Definitely my favourite to write in, too.

    • Adrian

      Yeah. There was a thread on a fb group I’m part of dissing everything third person and uplifting first person. It was insane.