This may seem silly but I actually get a lot of questions about point of view.

There are three points of view in writing: First person, Second person, and Third person. Most books are written in either the First or Third person. In order to understand it a little easier, think of each POV as a camera.

First Person

In first person point of view, YOU are the main character, you ARE the camera. You can only hear, see, and feel what the camera (main character) feels.

For example:


The room was painted a dark red, almost the color of blood. There was painting on the wall, a couch dominating the floor, and an end table with a lamp on it. There might have been more but the peephole only allowed me to see so much from my position.


Or . . .

Mark told me it was the truth, but I didn’t believe him. Mark never told the truth, so why should he start now?
 

I approached him the way a cheetah might approach a wounded deer and shouted, “You liar!”
 

First person point of view is great when you want the reader to really get into a character. Like I stated above, the reader hears, sees, and feels everything that character does, so much that they become the character. And writing in the first person helps the reader identify with them that much easier.

The only problem when writing in the first person is that you can never deviate from that character. You can never see what’s going on when they’re not there (because you ARE the person). It will also be impossible for the reader to know what the other characters are really thinking—they can only assume, because the POV character can only assume:

Melissa hated me.

There would be no way for the POV character to know for sure that Melissa hated him, unless Melissa came right out and said it, either by words, actions, or both:


I tried pulling Melissa into my arms but she quickly pushed me away.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted. “Don’t you ever touch me! I hate you!”

 
Third Person

Third person is a little bit different. There are two main types of Third person: Limited and omniscient.

In Third person limited, the reader knows the thoughts and feelings of the main characters, but only one at a time. The story can also be written from that character’s perspective, as if the camera is focused on that character so much that you start to (but just barely) think the way they do.


Five-year-old Kendra Walkins stared at the clock on the wall. It was large, gold, and had a white face with odd markings where the numbers should have been. It almost looked like someone had tried to spell them out but could only write with vertical lines and Vs. It made Kendra feel disoriented, as if she had stepped into another world.


The reader can tell that Kendra is viewing a clock with Roman numerals. But Kendra, at five years of age, has no knowledge of Roman numerals and therefore can’t make this connection. She just sees the numbers as vertical lines and Vs. Also, because this is a type of Third person POV, the reader knows how she feels when she sees the clock.

In Third person omniscient, there is one camera pulled all the way back so that the reader can take in the whole scene. Yet . . . this camera is special. It’s God-like. It has multiple lenses, like a fly’s eye, so that each lens can focus intently on a different character. In this POV, the reader should be able to know ALL the characters’ feeling at all times. And this goes for secondary characters, too. Since this is confusing, this POV is hardly used. Plus, it would be annoying to execute and would create little suspense (seriously, how much tension could you build when the reader already knew in the first chapter that Katie would say no to John when he proposed to her at the end of the book?).

Many authors write somewhere in between the first two Third person examples, as if the camera is pulled back to take in the whole scene but doesn’t have that special compound lens, like a fly’s eye. They don’t need to know the feelings of EVERY character, and yet they don’t need to follow one character around, they want to be able to jump:


Frank dropped his head, exhausted.  “I don’t want to have this argument again.”
 
“Neither do I,” said Katie. She hesitated, and then wrapped her arms around him.

Frank felt like pinching himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Katie wasn’t usually this friendly, but then again, Frank knew she had never been in love before.


The scene’s written from Frank’s POV but the camera isn’t super close, where you can see very little or anything else. It’s farther back, allowing you to see how Katie feels, too.


Second Person

I saved this POV for last, because it’s used the least of all.

Second person is a lot like Third Person, except that instead of using the pronoun “he” or “she” you use “you.” It’s a lot like an instruction manual in present tense, or those books where you choose what happens next:


You walk to the end of the narrow corridor where you find a window. It’s shut, but you wedge your fingers into the space at the bottom and pry it up with all your might. Then it opens, slowly, squealing like a rusty hinge.

If you go out the window, turn to page 3. If you turn around, . . .      (Just kidding about this part.)


In short, you have First person (YOU are the main character), Third person limited (camera focused intently on one person), Third person omniscient (camera a bit farther back with that God-like lens), or Second person (the “what do you do next” type of writing). Deciding which POV you want to use for your novel can be a daunting decision, but it’s one that you have to make. If you want the reader to associate with the main character, see, hear, and feel what they do, then your best option is First person. If you want to jump around a lot, show different scenes with different characters in them, write from different perspectives, then your best bet is probably Third person. I haven’t found a use for Second in any of my writing yet, but if I do I’ll let you know :P