Points of View in Writing: A Detailed Overview of 5 Types

If you’re the kind of writer who thinks they should just write in whichever of the points of views in writing you feel most comfortable…you need me. You need this blog post!

Because that’s the wrong way to approach choosing a point of view for your story.

It might line up that what’s best for the story is what you’re better at writing or the one you like best, but that’s not always the case. Choosing which to write in will change your story. That’s why it’s important to understand your options, the pros and cons, and the impact it’ll have on the narrative.

Here’s what you’ll learn about points of view in writing:

1. What are they
2. 5 types
3. Overviews
   • First person
   • Second person
   • Third person close
   • Third person omniscient
   • Omniscient

What is the point of view in writing?

In writing, point of view (POV) refers to the perspective from which a story is told. It determines who is telling the story and what the reader knows about the events and characters. Essentially, is the narrator the main character, someone outside the story (but still a person), or an all-knowing entity?

Points of view in writing give us the angle at which we observe the story taking place.

Choosing to use one over the other can change the overall perception of the story itself. It can make it more or less entertaining, make the stakes feel more or less severe, and even affect how much the reader cares about the main character.

All of this is vital in telling the story you want to tell.

5 Types of points of view in writing

You’ve probably only heard of the three types, as that’s how they’re listed in most places. But as time goes on, it’s clear there’s been a separation in these styles, enough to separate them from one another to create 5 distinct types of points of view in writing.

Truthfully, you’ll likely only read a few of these. As some are more rare than others. That said, here are the 5 types of points of view in writing:

1. First person
2. Second person
3. Third person (close)
4. Third person omniscient
5. Omniscient point of view

Let’s crack each of these open, look at some examples, and discuss how the choice in POV can alter the entire perception, tone, and shape of your book.

Learn the points of view in writing with detailed explanations & examples

If you’re like me, you’re someone who’ll want to see examples of the points of view in writing to get the whole picture. You’ll get those, in both past and present tense (another choice to make), along with a general overview.

First person point of view

If the story is told through the eyes of the main character, where they refer to themselves as “I”, it’s first person point of view. Sometimes, you’ll find stories where the main character has written it and it’s in past tense. Other times, you’ll find a present tense narration that’s as if the character is narrating the events as they’re happening in real time.

It’s one of the most common points of view in writing for young adult novels as well as romance, but it can actually work well in any genre provided you’re using it intentionally.

Of the points of view in writing, here’s what first person looks like:

I slung the strap over my shoulder and continued forward. It would be days before I saw another person, I guessed. What happens to a person when they go too long without contact? The thought hung in the back of my mind as I trudged forward, my boots sucking against the layer of fresh mud made by last night’s rain.

Examples of first person – past & present tense:

As you can see in the examples above, both use “I” as if the main character is speaking. However, in the example from Colleen Hoover’s book, she’s talking about the events as they happened in the past, whereas Stone’s book presents them as happening in the moment.

Pros and cons of this point of view in writing:

How it impacts narrative:

It’s much easier to know the main character with this point of view. Character driven stories tend to do really well with first person. Remember, though, that if the main character is the one telling the story, it will always make the stakes feel a little less severe if you’re using past tense. Because we know this happened in the past and they’re living to tell the tale. But, if you use first person, you can tell a story that’s very tailored to what this character saw or experienced, with a lot of mystery left to work with.

Books with examples of first person:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Second person point of view

Easily the most rare of the points of view in writing is second person. It’s really hard to do well, and is almost always used specifically for the odd effect it gives. If you use second person, it’s as if the narrator is speaking directly to the reader, and the story is about the reader.

Famously, the books You (that the Netflix show is based on) is a recent example of this perspective done well. However, these books are an interesting first and second person mashup. It’s really creatively done, but still only borderline. It’s one of the hardest points of view in writing to do.

When the “choose your own adventure” stories were popular, this point of view was used often.

Notably, second person point of view is not often written in past tense because it’s hard to convince the reader the events are happening to them now if it’s in the past.

Here’s what second person looks like:

You can’t help but stare across the way at the girl counting pennies on the sidewalk. She’s not paying attention to the loose dog up the road. Some with less experience than you might assume the dog is friendly, that the barking and wagging of its tail indicates excitement and happiness. But you know better. You know the dog is staring at the girl as if she’s the biggest threat on the street, and not a helpless child distracted by loose change on the chalk-ridden sidewalk.

Examples of second person:

The difference in the above examples is pretty clear. One, there’s no self narrator talking as if to you. The other has a first and second person point of view, where the main character is actually speaking to you as if you’re in their story.

Pros and cons of this point of view in writing:

How it impacts narrative:

If done well, it can give your story that X factor necessary for it to take off. As is the case with You by Caroline Kepnes. She decided to take a different angle with it and made it her own. That said, the narrative will feel very different compared to other fiction books. Second person is typically reserved for instructionals and articles, like this, and less so for fiction. But, if you’re up for a challenge and have an interesting idea, write with it! Innovate. Revive the points of view in writing by bringing second person back.

Books with examples of second person:

• Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
• You by Caroline Kepnes
• Choose Your Own Adventure series by various authors
• Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins

Third person close point of view

You may also have heard of this as third person limited, but there’s a small difference that’s adjusted the way we think about it when it comes to the points of view in writing.

Limited is used to describe the narrator solely focusing on one person in the current time, without the ability to look into the future or reference anything off-page that the main character wouldn’t know. With third person close, it’s the same, but with the added element of taking the narrative close enough to the main character that we know their thoughts, feelings, and reaction as if we were actually in their head.

It has to do with the psychic distance from the main character. The closeness here has grown in recent years, meaning the traditional third person “limited” point of view had altered to include much more emotional and physiological details of the character’s world than before.

Another way to think of it is with third person limited, the narrative uses the container of the main character to show more of the external world of the story, where third person close includes the character’s inner world to a much greater degree.

Here’s the difference in action, see if you can spot it:

Close:

Annabel’s chest seized. She couldn’t suck in a breath even if she wanted to. What she just heard was like an allergy, thickening the walls of her throat, preventing air from getting in or out. How could she have let it come to this? Of course, she was blaming herself. It was her fault. How could it not be? She had always been the one to overlook the actions of another until it cost her dearly. She needed to think.

Limited:

The girl stopped breathing, as if what she’d just heard was an allergy constricting her throat and preventing air from getting in or out. She wondered how she could have let it come to this. She blamed herself, of course, as she did with these situations. Overlooking the actions of another until it cost her dearly seemed to be a theme in her life. She needed to think.

Both of these passages gets the same message across, but how it comes across is where these points of view in writing differs. It’s almost as if the points of view in writing for third can be thought of like this: limited has more of a narrative voice like someone else is telling the story from a distance, whereas close is almost like the main character is the one telling the story in third person.

Examples of third person close – past & present tense:

Pros and cons of this point of view in writing:

How it impacts narrative:

Because this is one of the points of view in writing that’s grown a lot, it’s obviously beneficial. It tends to lend more life to the story while still feeling like one of the old epics, giving it a sense of timelessness. But you will end up creating a tone and narrative voice for this perspective that sounds more like the character themselves. If you use other points of view in writing, like omniscient, the narrative takes a different voice, as if there is actually someone else writing the story.

Books with examples of third person close:

• The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Third person Omniscient point of view

And here, the difference in the points of view in writing is that with third person omniscient, the narrator knows of all past and future events. They’re all-knowing, but only follow the actions and events surrounding the main character. You could also argue that with this one, the narrator can also know what’s happening in other places within the story that doesn’t have to do directly with the main character, can hint at them, but won’t reveal details about them.

The narrator in this point of view tends to focus solely on how anything known outside of the main character affects the main character.

Here’s what this would look like:

Callum sighed deeply, having had quite the day already. If he knew what he was in for in the coming days—weeks, even—he might have saved himself the air and counted himself lucky that this was all he had to deal with this day. But Callum didn’t know, and thus, the events that had transpired prior to his car’s engine refusing to start were enough to pull the lengthy breath from his lungs and leave him reeling with thoughts of supernatural forces evidently aiming to destroy his life.

Examples of third person omniscient:

This is another of the points of view in writing that you don’t often find in present tense. It’s not easy to do in the moment, so the examples above are both in past tense.

Pros and cons of this point of view in writing:

How it impacts narrative:

This is one of the points of view in writing you can get away with much easier foreshadowing. Because the narrator (aka you) know what’s going to happen, you can hint at events to come. You can do something similar with first person, but using third person omniscient is better for this because the character in the story doesn’t know what’ll happen yet. This way, you can create higher stakes

Books with examples of third person omniscient:

• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Omniscient point of view

A true omniscient point of view is when the narrator knows what all the characters are thinking and feeling, in addition to knowing the past and future of all events. There are cases when you might choose to write with omniscient point of view but still exclude any knowledge of future events. As long as the narrative knows all the thoughts and feelings of all characters present, it’s considered omniscient.

You might be having a hard time thinking of books that fall under this category, and you wouldn’t be alone. This is one of the points of view in writing that’s not used very often anymore. However, it was incredibly popular in the 19th century, especially during the Victorian and Romantic periods. Many classic novels from this time used third-person omniscient narration, allowing authors to explore the thoughts, emotions, and motives of multiple characters, as well as comment on societal norms and events.

As with with most trends, this had to do with what was common at the time, which was social events where people were surrounded by many others and what those people were thinking mattered. To satisfy this curiosity, authors of this time wrote about social events in which all the characters inner thoughts and feelings could be explored.

Suzanne couldn’t find it in her to forgive Rachel for what she’d done. The woman had betrayed her in ways that another might find insignificant, but not Suzanne. As she looked at the frail woman, she couldn’t make sense of how it had happened. But Rachel knew exactly how it happened. People always underestimated her, especially Suzanne. She didn’t want to hurt her friend, but such things were necessary on occasion.

Examples of omniscient – past & present tense:

Pros and con of this point of view in writing:

How it impacts narrative:

It’s not very common anymore because it’s harder to do. Most readers nowadays want to focus on a single character, go deep with them, and get the story from their point of view. Omniscient impacts the narrative by giving you as much as you want to work with as the author, so you can really take the story anywhere you want and jump into any one character’s mind. Of the points of view in writing, omniscient requires the most character development, because you have to know all the characters well, or they end up sounding the same.

Books with examples of omniscient point of view:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The point of view you choose to write in will make a huge difference in your story—both for how it feels, how it sounds, and what you share of the plot itself. Make sure to choose wisely and focus on the point of view that’s best for your story.

Writing Points of View FAQ

What are the different points of view in writing?

First person uses “I” or “we,” second person uses “you,” and third person uses “he,” “she,” or “they.” Third person can be either limited (focused on one character) or omniscient (the narrator knows everything, including other characters’ thoughts).

How do you decide which point of view to use when writing?

Think about how close you want the reader to feel to the character. First person feels personal, great for character-driven stories. Third person works better for stories with multiple plotlines or perspectives. Omniscient is useful if you need a big-picture view of events.

What’s the difference between third person limited and omniscient?

Third person limited sticks closely to one character’s thoughts and experiences. Omniscient allows the narrator to know everything happening, including events or thoughts the characters aren’t aware of.

Can you switch points of view within the same story?

Yes, but it’s tricky. You need to make the switches intentional and clear to avoid confusing the reader. Often, each chapter or section sticks with one character’s POV to keep things smooth.

What makes second person point of view so rare?

Second person addresses the reader directly as “you,” which can feel unnatural for long narratives. It’s most often used for experimental stories or “choose-your-own-adventure” books, where the goal is to immerse the reader directly into the plot.

Why does POV matter in storytelling?

POV shapes how readers connect to the characters and plot. A well-chosen POV heightens tension, reveals emotions, and gives unique insights, while the wrong one creates distance or confusion.