Point of View: Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story

Finding the right point of view is one of the most important—and least understood—challenges writers face.

Point of view extends far beyond the choice of first, second, or third person. POV determines all that a reader knows about the world inside a story. Is the murder told from the criminal’s, the detective’s, or the victim’s vantage point? An awful lot rides on that decision.

In short, a story’s point of view guides the characters, message, and events that matter.

In Point of View: Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story, Story Grid Publishing Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts provides examples from dozens of masterworks to help writers understand telling and showing points of view and narrative devices. Does a telling narrator live inside or outside the story? Is the focus of a showing POV external or internal? Every choice has an impact.

Watts offers a revolutionary approach to point of view, demonstrating how deep study of narrative perspective can empower and uplift storytellers themselves. When writers truly master point of view they can share the messages they want to share and bring their stories to life.