Meg Chittenden Waves
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Viewpoint in the Novel - Third Person

Now, just to confuse matters, third-person viewpoint can be approached in more than one way: In one, the writer writes only through the viewpoint of the main character--a very limited choice. It's really the same as first person, using he or she or the character's name instead of "I."

The viewpoint I'm going to examine most extensively is not only the most popular, (in novel-writing,) it is the most likely to give the writer problems. This is the third-person, multiple viewpoint, in which the author writes from the viewpoints of more than one character.

I've used this method in romances and intrigues and in a couple of mainstream novels. It's my favorite method.

Here are a few passages from one of my novels:When The Spirit Is Willing, in which I used several viewpoints.

Viewpoint 1. Laura, the heroine, third-person viewpoint:

She picked up her flashlight, then hesitated. There it was again--that odd, spine-tingling sensation that made her feel as if someone was watching her. She'd felt it several times a day since she'd moved into the house on Humboldt Street. Sometimes there were other weird sensations--a whisper of air on the staircase, a movement caught out of the corner of her eye, a patch of heat or cold in an otherwise temperate room.

Because I used such phrases as "made her feel," "She'd felt it," "movement caught out of the corner of her eye," the reader is kept quite firmly inside Laura through all of this passage.

If I had written Laura picked up her flashlight, a frown on her pretty face, I would have slipped out of Laura's viewpoint by looking at her from the outside. Either I'm in someone else's viewpoint and that person is watching Laura, or I'm omniscient. I cannot see my own face without a mirror, so how could Laura see hers without a mirror?

I stress this because I so frequently see manuscripts in which an author puts the reader inside Clare's viewpoint, then writes: Feeling vaguely frightened, Clare tried to relax in her seat, a worried expression spoiling the delicate beauty of her face.

Not only has the author leaped out of Clare's viewpoint, but Clare now seems pretty conceited. If you want to be sure you haven't slipped out of viewpoint, you might try mentally casting a particular section into first person. You would not write, I tried to relax in my seat, a worried expression spoiling the delicate beauty of my face, unless you have a lot more confidence than I have!

I'm a purist about viewpoint. Since I see published novels in which writers slip in and out of viewpoint, some writers and editors obviously disagree with me. But it seems to me that it's jarring to let readers inside a character and then show that character from the outside.

There are many ways to describe your viewpoint character without slipping out of viewpoint or resorting to the trite method of having a character look at herself in a mirror. I usually wait until I shift the story into another character's point of view, and then I let the secondcharacter do the describing. Or I might have another character say something tothe viewpoint character that reveals what she looks like: "That green dress really matches youreyes." "You look like an ad for sunshine and vitamins."

Viewpoint 2. Jessica, the heroine's daughter, third-person viewpoint:

Jessica slammed her bedroom door. She was getting sick of her mom yelling at her for something that wasn't her fault. "You got me in trouble again, Priscilla," she grumbled, throwing herself down on the bed.

She heard the creak of the nearby rocking chair. "I'm sorry, Jessica," Priscilla said.

The sentence, "Jessica slammed her bedroom door," could be in anyone's viewpoint. However, "She was getting sick of her mom yelling at her for something that wasn't her fault," or, "She heard the creak of the rocking chair," can be only in Jessica's viewpoint, because Jessica's senses are involved.

Viewpoint 3. Here's Carter's viewpoint, again in third person. Carter is a museum curator, and he talks (and thinks) in a rather formal manner:

It was like watching a Polaroid picture come to life, Carter thought with awe. A twentieth-century marvel, which, in this instance, had a nineteenth-century result. The woman who had slowly materialized in the Boston rocker was definitely of the nineteenth century. She was corseted and bustled, richly dressed in jade green, her small feet tightly encased in black buttoned boots, her face innocent of makeup, her long curly brown hair drawn softly back into a bun under a hat trimmed with fluffy feathers.

She was smiling at him, her green eyes gleaming. Distantly, he heard Laura exclaim hoarsely in disbelief, but over that he heard the other woman's voice. "Hello there, Carter, you're looking more like yourself today."

He remembered that voice. Mischievous, lilting, it had filled his early childhood with laughter...and love.

Priscilla.

The reason I quote that fairly long passage is to show what would happen if I didn't stay in Carter's viewpoint throughout that scene:

It was like watching a Polaroid picture come to life, Carter thought with awe. A twentieth century marvel, which in this instance, had a nineteenth century result.

Laura couldn't believe the evidence of her own eyes. The woman who had slowly materialized in the Boston rocker was corseted and bustled, richly dressed in jade green, her small feet tightly encased in black buttoned boots, her face innocent of makeup, her long curly brown hair drawn softly back into a bun under a hat trimmed with fluffy feathers.

Priscilla smiled at Carter, her green eyes gleaming. She thought he looked more like his old self today. "Hello there, Carter," she said to him.

Carter remembered that voice.

Pretty bad stuff. When you are writing in one person's viewpoint, you should stay in that person's viewpoint, at least for a while. There is nothing more distressing to readers than hopping from one character's mind to another to another. This example may seem exaggerated,but I have seen much worse--manuscripts in which the writer entered the mind of almost everyone in a restaurant, including the waiters and the cook in his kitchen!