Third person limited or omniscient?

[Yukinara]

Which one should I go for? I tend to use 3rd person omniscient because there are many important details I need to give out. But people said that third person limited is getting popular. Which one should I go with?

[Orianna2000]

This is a decision that only you can make. It's like asking should you buy a red car or a blue car? Well, red is very popular this year. But is it the kind of car you want to buy?

Which style will help you tell the story you want to tell?

That said, as a personal opinion, I prefer limited POVs. I want to intimately get to know the main character. I don't need to know details that he doesn't yet know. Just show me the world through his or her eyes and I'll be happy. (Well, provided the writing is good. If the writing is bad, I won't care a whit whose POV you use or whether it's first or third-person.) I love first-person novels, but third-person limited is fine, too. Omniscient is too broad for my tastes.

But again, it really comes down to you and the story you want to tell.

[Yukinara]

thank you, that really helps

[MKrys]

Couldn't agree more with Orianna's advice. Having said that, I too prefer a limited POV.

[Linda Adams]

What's going to work with your story and you as a writer? That's really the only answer.

[totopink]

It completely depends on your characters, your story, and how you feel comfortable writing. I find that I naturally write in third person omniscient but a lot of the times I have gone through my first 1,000 words and changed them to 1st person or 3rd limited just because that fits the story better.

Don't approach it worrying about what is popular and what isn't, just get a feel for how it flows and what feels natural to you.

[Bufty]

I'd go a little further than that in this particular case and suggest the OP first researches and understands the power of POV and what each one is and then decides which one best suits the effective telling of the story in question.

Scanning stickied threads near the top of Forum Thread Listings often leads to the Frequently Asked Questions thread.

Originally Posted by totopink

It completely depends on your characters, your story, and how you feel comfortable writing. I find that I naturally write in third person omniscient but a lot of the times I have gone through my first 1,000 words and changed them to 1st person or 3rd limited just because that fits the story better.

Don't approach it worrying about what is popular and what isn't, just get a feel for how it flows and what feels natural to you.

[triceretops]

I've gotten in trouble with Omni before. More than a few times. I stick to third limited, and hold very tight on it.

Tri

[Yukinara]

Thanks for all of your feedback, I will stick with 3rd omniscient. That fits better with my story

[hlynn117]

Something I was told was to put as little between the reader and the characters in the story as possible. This is why I prefer limited third and first person. In the end, it's what gets your story across. What works for you. Maybe experiment through short stories to understand how to write different POVs. Tell the story from multiple perspectives and see what makes the best novel.

[Yukinara]

the main problem with third person omniscient is head hopping. When I edit my novel, there are a truck load of them. I have to stay from the main perspective and work it out. Other than that, I don't have much problem with that type

[HoneyBadger]

Well, omni is just constant head-hopping. In omni, you're in everyone's head, all the time.

It sounds like you want to move to 3rd limited.

[BethS]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Well, omni is just constant head-hopping. In omni, you're in everyone's head, all the time.

I hope not!

In omni, you have one POV: the narrator. The narrator can be overt or transparent, but either way, s/he has access to all knowledge and POVs, though hopefully will exercise great restraint in the revelation of the former, and the use of the latter.

[Yukinara]

Originally Posted by Jamesaritchie

Omniscient is not constant head-hopping. This is the mistake many make in trying to write it. Third limited with head-hopping is still just third limited with head-hopping.

The whole point of omniscient is distance, not head-hopping. In omniscient, the narrator is far removed from the characters. He isn't in everyone's head, he's standing high above the story, up on a distant mountain, and so can see the entire course of events at once.

If you're constantly head-hopping, you aren't writing omniscient at all, you're just writing bad third person limited .

YES, YES, YES, this is exactly what I have been looking for. Omniscient is NOT head hopping. It is not a reason for the author to jump in everyone's head and pull out what they think. It will be very confusing to the reader. With 3rd omniscient, I can get the story going without having to limit my view just to 1 person

[Linda Adams]

Originally Posted by Yukinara

YES, YES, YES, this is exactly what I have been looking for. Omniscient is NOT head hopping. It is not a reason for the author to jump in everyone's head and pull out what they think. It will be very confusing to the reader. With 3rd omniscient, I can get the story going without having to limit my view just to 1 person

The other common thing many, many writers think is that omniscient consists of multiple viewpoints. That's what usually leads to head hopping because the writers don't realize omni is one viewpoint, the all-seeing narrator. Every shift to look into a character's head has to be intentional and thought out.

[HoneyBadger]

Originally Posted by Jamesaritchie

Omniscient is not constant head-hopping. This is the mistake many make in trying to write it. Third limited with head-hopping is still just third limited with head-hopping.

The whole point of omniscient is distance, not head-hopping. In omniscient, the narrator is far removed from the characters. He isn't in everyone's head, he's standing high above the story, up on a distant mountain, and so can see the entire course of events at once.

If you're constantly head-hopping, you aren't writing omniscient at all, you're just writing bad third person limited.

I know that, but the OP thinks omni can't work with multiple perspectives.

I was just trying to phrase it as simply as possible- in omni, there's one perspective that covers everything.

Take Old Man and the Sea- it *looks* like constant head-hopping, but it's not. Obviously there's a lot, lot more to it than that, but for starters... I don't know.

Bufty's point for the OP to really learn about POVs before deciding what voice to use is very good advice.

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him.

But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.

It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast.

[HoneyBadger]

Oh, you know what I mean.

[BethS]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Oh, you know what I mean.

[Midian]

Originally Posted by Yukinara

Which one should I go for?

I've stumbled upon another trick question! Ack!

[blacbird]

Originally Posted by Yukinara

I tend to use 3rd person omniscient because there are many important details I need to give out.

You can provide the reader "important details" as easily through 3rd-limited POV (or 1st-person, for that matter) as you can via omniscient. Good writers manage this all the time.

Beware the "important details I NEED TO GIVE OUT" syndrome. It sounds like you ache to "provide" a massive info-dump, which is absolutely the worst reason to choose an omniscient narrative POV.

Regardless of the POV, let the story provide the details, as needed. Don't go spoon-feeding them to the reader because you, the author, think that's necessary.

caw

[Yukinara]

yes, that's another problem I have, in the original draft, I have around 70,000 words. After deleting all the info dump I have around 62,000

The reason I stick to 3rd omniscient is the because my story was told by 3 different perspectives. After chapter 4, they split into 3 branches, 1 main story which tell from the hero's perspective. The other two are not as big but they play a crucial part in developing the story until later when they unite in the second book.

[BethS]

Originally Posted by Yukinara

The reason I stick to 3rd omniscient is the because my story was told by 3 different perspectives. After chapter 4, they split into 3 branches, 1 main story which tell from the hero's perspective. The other two are not as big but they play a crucial part in developing the story until later when they unite in the second book.

Just noting that having a story branch in three directions doesn't necessarily call for omniscient POV. You can use that, of course, but you can also tell the story through three, limited-third POV characters.

[goldhorse]

I think 3rd person omniscient would be fine for that, especially with different perspectives. I'd get bumfuzzled (it's a word a love) when head hopping and a 3rd person limited wouldn't allow you the use of the other POVs as freely. I also HATE HATE HATE 1st person...and yet that's the first thing I start writing in. Ugh.

Also, I feel your pain for the info dump. I've gone back to edit my WIP (which is like 250K and only 3/4 of the way done) and I've manged to cut out about 300 words per chapter of just dialoge tags, repetition, and useless infodump. It's so easy to go overboard.

[Yukinara]

I don't really hate 1st perspective, I have 2 other book ideas in my mind can be told from 1st view point, but in this novel, I can't find any other way beside 3rd omniscient, because later the reader will question "wait, where is that coming from? I didn't see it before"

[Fallen]

I think there can be a certain arrogance from omni narration at times. Especially the sort that acknowedges the reader. *shudders* I thought that had died out with the dinosaurs, but it seems I was wrong....

I'm with Bufty on this one -- research intensely, read intensely.