The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction in Third Person

Third-person point of view feels like the default in the literary world. Many novels refer to main characters using the pronouns “he,” “she,” or “they,” rather than the “I/me/my” of first-person narration.

Let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of this perspective, along with some other concerns unique to this point of view (POV), including:

• Narrative Distance (Limited vs. Omniscient)
• Multiple perspectives
• Head-hopping
• Third-person present tense

How Close Should You Get?

Whereas first person involves immersing yourself in one individual voice, third person allows for varying degrees of “narrative distance,” also known as “psychic distance” — that is, how close the reader is to the characters’ thoughts.

These levels of narrative distance give rise to different classifications of third person, namely limited and omniscient.

Imagine how different the Harry Potter series would feel if it had been written in first-person instead of third-person POV. Here’s my rewritten excerpt from The Chamber of Secrets: