Little White Lies: What is the Best Point of View (POV)?

When I started writing my first contemporary romance novel, Little White Lies, I chose to write in first person POV, present tense, and entirely from the perspective of the protagonist, Madalyn Russell. The first half of the book is set on a cruise ship, and using first person POV and present tense often gives the reader the sense of experiencing events simultaneously with the protagonist. It seemed like a no brainer. I mean, who doesn’t want to go on a cruise and have fun?

At about the halfway mark, I decided to ask my sisters to beta read the manuscript, and one of my sisters suggested the story would be much better in third person POV and past tense. UGH! I wanted to scream “Are you kidding me?” Okay, in all honestly, I probably did scream something like that but with several choice words splashed in there. However, in my desire to write the best story possible, I took her advice and rewrote the first chapter in third person POV and past tense. Just to test out her theory. And darn it all – my sister was absolutely right! So I rewrote nearly 150 pages from first person to third person and changed the tense from present to past.

So when I started my second novel, Date Night, I learned from my mistake and wrote the entire book in third person POV, past tense, but this time I used alternating viewpoints between the hero and heroine. Imagine my horror when the feedback my niece shared was that I should try to write the story from first person POV! After screaming more choice words, I sat down and rewrote the first chapter in first person POV and it was so much better! AAARRRGGG – another 150 pages rewritten but this time from third person POV to first person POV!    

Experience taught me a valuable lesson! One of the most important decisions an author faces at the onset of a book is which POV to write from: first person, second person, third person or omniscient. It is rare to find books written in second person and omniscient POV, however, it is trendy these days for authors to write in first person POV. But third person POV is still a popular choice.

So how does an author decide the best POV for their novel? That’s an excellent question which doesn’t have a straight forward answer. But before I start any novel, there are several factors that influence my choice of POV including, but not limited to:

·        Genre / Subgenre – most young adult and new adult novels are in first person POV

·        Intended audience (both reader and publisher) – some publishers have a stated preference for first or third person POV so pay attention if you’re targeting a specific publisher, and many young readers today prefer first person POV

·        Plot – first person POV can give a reader the sense of experiencing the events in the story first hand so action packed story lines can be thrilling in first person POV

·        Personal preference – this is probably the biggest factor for most readers – my own opinion is that you can never go wrong with third person POV, but sometimes first person POV works even better

I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. Personally, I enjoy first person POV in stories that have a protagonist under the age of twenty five and / or there is a lot of action [Twilight Series is 1^st person, past tense / Fifty Shades of Grey Series is 1^st person, present tense]. 

What is the best point of view? It's a book by book decision. But now when I write a novel, I write the first chapter in both first person POV and third person POV to determine which reads better! See - you can teach an old dog new tricks. :-)