Choosing a Point of View:
In any type of story there is always someone who is telling it. It is one of the very critical decisions for the author to decide. The tone and feel of the story, and many times, its meaning, can change rapidly depending on who is telling the story.
There is always someone telling the story between the reading and the action of the story. That someone is always telling from his or her point of view. The angle from which the people, events, and details of a story are seen, it is the most important thing to consider when writing a story.
Most times you’ll notice that an author doesn’t change his or her point of view through the story. It is something you need to keep consistent because switching the views can either be confusing or very unnecessary. If you are going to switch the views, try to maintain consistent and only do it once or twice throughout the story. If you find that you must switch the point of views do it only once during the chapter. When you keep switching point of views, it’s considered tacky and unprofessional. It’s even worse when you just tell when you switch the POV. In a story you need to show not tell.
Example 1:
Then he walked away and I never saw him again.
~*~*~*~
((Chases POV))
I really wanted to see her but I couldn’t because…
It’s unnecessary to tell the readers that you’re switching the views. It’s worse when you ask the readers if you should switch the views. When you write a story of any kind, the characters and decisions should be made up to you. If you resort to asking readers what you think you should do, you either have bad characters, no plot, or are just not a very experienced writer.
Here are the types of POV you can use. This information below was used from: Learner.org
Objective Point of View:
With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.
Third Person Point of View:
Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the characters through this outside voice.
First Person Point of View:
In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of the accounting.
Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View:
A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all knowing, or omniscient. A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has a limited omniscient point of view.
As you read a piece of fiction think about these things:
How does the point of view affect your responses to the characters? How is your response influenced by how much the narrator knows and how objective he or she is? First person narrators are not always trustworthy. It is up to you to determine what the truth is and what is not.