by Elton Gahr

Created on: June 16, 2009

Third person narrative is the most common form of narration in modern writing, but that doesn't mean that it isn't without its pitfalls. Writing in the third person is not as limited as it might seem. You can write from third person omniscient, you can write with a narrator that is wrong or is lying, you can even change the point of view so long as you are careful.

The first thing is to understand third person narration. Third person narration is at its basic any story in which the narration uses the words he, she, or they. This is almost always the narration used in TV if you assume that the camera is the third person. The other types of narration are first person, which uses the word I, and second person which uses you.

Third person omniscient may seem like the easiest of these. There are no restrictions in knowledge for the third person omniscient narrator. If you want to tell the writer there is nothing stopping you from writing it down. This can even be the voice of the author if so desired. The difficult begin to creep in when you want to have surprises in your story. It can still happen, but the reader may feel lied to depending on the style. Be aware also that describing the feelings and emotions of multiple characters will draw the reader out of the story. It is simply too unnatural for them and while this can be fine it is a danger.

Third person limited is typically inside the emotions and thoughts of one of the characters, but isn't that character himself. This may sound odd but nearly every book written uses this style. The difference between this and omniscient is that it limits itself to the thoughts and emotions of a single character. This is natural for people who are limited to their own thoughts and because of that is the most common type of narration. You can change the point of view character for this style of writing far easier than first or second person narration but you must be careful not to confuse the reader. For this reason it is best to change point of view characters at scene or preferably chapter breaks and make it clear early who the new point of view character is.

Last is the unreliable third person narrator. This is a person telling a story who doesn't have his facts correct or is outright lying. When done right this can make a story a sort of mystery to the reader as he tries to piece together what really happened. If you are going to use this style it is typically useful to have at least one major lie that is clear to the reader early on. This type of narration can also use faulty assumptions or logic, even opinions that are generally assumed wrong. A narrator that is a white supremacist will have a different take on the story and can make the reader think more than someone who is simply telling the truth.

Third person narration is so natural to many of our writing styles that we never really think about it, yet using third person narration in the same way all the time leads to predictable reading as well as making you miss out on valuable additions to your story.

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