8 Unconventional Points of View | Writing Tips

[@lyssia5138]

I once wrote a story about a girl "sharing" her body with a spirt, and it was apparently in third, but when the girl finally lost control of her body the reader noticed it was in first person the whole time, and the spirt was the narrator

[@ShaelinWrites]

i am obsessed with this concept

[@ollie2111]

Woaaaah, I love that

[@billyalarie929]

T R A N S F O R M A T I V E

[@tunathetuba7721]

that sounds awesome!!!

[@krishnarchanakg6984]

Hey, Can you send me the story.. Please

[@lexuschambe5787]

When you said 'first person omniscient,' I felt like my third eye was opened 😳

[@autumnwinter1462]

😂

[@valhatan3907]

Perfect analogy

[@billyalarie929]

holy fuck, how did i miss this comment? there's SO MUCH to love about this.

[@vitalspark6288]

As an example of second person perspective in future tense: Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Ah so true!

[@theblueartist261]

I used to write tons of short stories from the pov of inanimate objects. a few that stand out were a pencil, a rock, and a hat. I had a lot of fun with them!!

[@ShaelinWrites]

Okay we love a good inanimate object POV

[@jasonmcmillen165]

I'm desperate to know how that works. I was considering a sailboats perspective w/ different crews. I'm unable to imagine how to develop this idea. Any examples would help.

[@עדיעקיבא-ד4ו]

​​@@jasonmcmillen165 Try reading Robin Hobb's Mad Ship. It's a multi POV 3 person fantasy (2nd trilogy, 2nd book). One of the POVs is of the ship itself. The ship had several crews, including merchents, pirates and slave trafficers.

[@AdamFishkin]

"I think of it constantly; it finds me in my dreams ...." This is now a requirement for anyone's opening speech.

[@elisa4620]

Agreed. This is bith powerful and beautiful.

[@ellismartiskainen7729]

2020 mood: 2nd Person Future Tense My brain: You are going to be okay, Gemma.

[@clwilliams9276]

My brain: it'll be over in a few more months. You will be published by July next year and you will be happy for once in your life. I always write notes to myself in second person. Thats apparently weird but I see my future self as a separate entity from the self I am as I type this. So like an alarm will be "Get the hell up you ass. You got shit to do!" I usually swear more in those tho lol.

[@SaveMoreThanHoneyBees]

Ah yes, the 8 narrators of my life, finally made it somewhere

[@ShaelinWrites]

ugh squad goals

[@rev6215]

*I think of it constantly. It finds me in my dreams*

[@neuroticnovelist]

Seeing writers nerd out over pov is my favorite past time

[@avasghost]

Unconventional POVs are the best thing I now want to try all of these

[@ollie2111]

Same!!

[@ejwilly2309]

I just read “I Will Never Tell You This,” and the prose was beautiful 💕

[@ShaelinWrites]

thank you !

[@juniperwoodbury1404]

This is so fricken cool. I've never thought about using POV as a way to explore a character's psychology 👀

[@TimothyNiederriter]

I think this is just alternating first-person, but I have a near-future science fiction series where characters can share memories with each other. Each memory is in first-person, but by context, readers can (Hopefully) tell that a different character is reliving the moments. Close to first-person collective, but not quite.

[@billyalarie929]

This is now my favorite video on the whole of AuthorTube. Thank you for this, Shaelin.

[@theorosef]

recently, I've been challenging myself to write funky short stories based on one-word prompts given to me by my friends (my next one is "grass"). I can't WAIT to mess around with these weird POVs !!!

[@allenholloway5109]

First person witness seems extremely useful for grounding a scene that would otherwise be otherwise fantastical from a more conventional first person point of view. Seeing the extraordinary from an ordinary perspective. (Obviously there are other uses, but this was the first that came to mind.)

[@ollie2111]

What a poetic way of thinking about it

[@NIN0ID]

this video actually inspired a whole short story that I'm now going to start, so thanks shaelin

[@melodid5023]

Girl.. I felt this video deep.. ♡ loved it. Ps. Future tense is super addictive! Because the narrator knows EVERYTHING! I wrote a short story from the pov of an Oracle and it was heart breaking!

[@ShaelinWrites]

ooohhh I really want to try it now!

[@ollie2111]

Same, this video opened me up to so many possibilities. I really need to start writinggg

[@melodid5023]

@@ollie2111 do it! I'm sure you'll nail it!

[@augusthawley5504]

I've used future tense before! I've admittedly never used it in a story, but I find it really useful in poetry and fun to mess with there, and in general have always found poetry to be the best place to get extremely close with a protagonist or character because it can be brief and it's more "acceptable" to have poems be really weird and experimental in form because everything has a poetic or symbolic purpose in poetry, so a weird point of view is just another symbol used by the author to create the image

[@ShaelinWrites]

Ohhhh that's actually a great idea, poetry sounds like a great place to experiment with future tense/other wacky stuff!

[@clwilliams9276]

@@ShaelinWrites I just wrote this in a separate comment lol. That its probably used in poetry a lot. Ik the idea of using it in poetry seems a lot easier than using it in a short story or novel.

[@dillonallen-perez]

I appreciate the Great Gatsby example for first person witness, even if you haven't read it haha. It is told from Nick Carraway's first person perspective on all the Jay Gatsby goings-on. It's hard to make it through high school in the U.S. without reading that book at some point. So yeah, that example helped me rethink POVs, how they've been used, & can be. ✌

[@N.Traveler]

This is so interesting! I only just realized how much variety just the POV alone can provide for a novel. I think it might even be able to make or break a whole book. I'm doing Nanowrimo and one big lesson I'm learning throughout the process is that if you pick the right point of view (I'm writing multiple POV 3rd person limited) the scene will basically write itself. Whenever I run into a problem or a scene just doesn't work, nine out of ten times it's having picked the wrong POV. I've made it kind of a rule of thumb to ask myself before writing a scene: - Which character will experience/is experiencing the most conflict in this given scene? - Which character will be most actively working toward their goals in the scene or will be doing the most interesting action? - Which person of all characters in the scene will change the most? Sometimes I have to write multiple drafts of the same scene in different POV's to determine which one works best. Does anyone else do this? (asking for a friend...)

[@KitKatWiffleBallBat]

Haha, Shaelin is so dang awesome. "POVs are kind of my thing...I'm not sure why." This is literally me when it comes to all forms of fantasy. I realise Shae is talking about character perspective, and I'm talking about genre, but the feels and internal identification is SO, so relatable.

[@mkk3984]

This was genuinely one of the most mind blowing videos I’ve watched wth. Second person instructional sounds like the best thing ever

[@amiliar2656]

All your videos make me want to write immediately but this one is just on another level.

[@munafruit]

i love how passionate you are about pov i also love that im using three of these in a project right now lol. maybe even fourish

[@justcallmemarcus]

This was fun. Thanks for the post. One of the projects I'm working on is in 1st person, it starts in past tense, but I plan on ending it in present tense; and doing so by shortening the amount of time the protagonist tells the story. To clarify: he starts several months ago, says a few months, a couple of months, last month, and so on until he''s talking about what is happening right now.

[@nesser52]

I'm a screenwriter and when I write short stories, character is build through dialogue and actions, especially little ones, frown is powerful, silence is loud :D I didn't really think this POV is not that common outside screen, thank you

[@a_literarylavender]

I'm currently writing a short story for our creative writing class that is a mix of 2nd person past tense (the character is dissociating from herself) and epistolary consisting of journal entries of another character. And I'm obsessed! It really works super well with what I'm going for. So, yea that's the weirdest I've so far written.

[@eadlc]

Now my novel has to be in second person... Good thing I’m two sentences into it!

[@markhnk]

WHAT? You have not read Great Gatsby? - considers unsubcribing, then remembers he didn't read it either - ok, continue! P.S. Left plant = Green Gatsby maybe?

[@ShaelinWrites]

naming a plant after a book you haven't read so people will think you've read it = galaxy brain

[@markhnk]

@@ShaelinWrites Don't judge me for my Infinite Jester (Crown Fern) on my bookshelf.

[@victoriannecastle]

Okay, I'll try one POV per day until I got it all and complete a novel. POV topic is underrated. We are all about writer's block but no one seems to see it from a different point of view. 😀

[@adamcal4257]

Second person instructive, interesting. I think I'm going to try that one out.

[@fatbitch7168]

That could be seen as someone constantly making decisions or a mentally ill person with compulsive tendencies XDD or maybe a psycho trying to fool everyone around them with their calculated actions and reactions. It gives place to a lot of possibilities, damn

[@fatbitch7168]

But now that I think about it, it would be harder to maintain the narrator when the MC thinks of someone else's actions or other external things. You would need to change the narrator

[@ollie2111]

Or a future tense in a time travel story. Aaaaah. I was also thinking of that in second person when you said thinking about their worries.

[@faridatamer6415]

*casually starts plotting a story in first person referral where the referred to is the narrator themselve.* Dude u passed on your obsession to me lmao

[@ShaelinWrites]

that sounds amazing ?? you have hacked POV??

[@faridatamer6415]

@@ShaelinWrites lol thanks to you tho

[@viktoriavadon2222]

Shaelin: let's talk about point of view! me: first person referral is coming! I love listening to you talk about POV, I know so little but I find everything so fascinating and I hope I'll get to experiment with some of these. First person referral actually seems one of the tamest examples among these :D That sounds like a nice way to explore a romance for example. Especially in past tense. Maybe in memoir of a lost loved one. But you have just picked my interest in future tense, what if someone who actually saw the future or different possible outcomes told a story in a mixture of present and future? This is such a fascinating and creative topic.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Haha you really saw me

[@umbrascitor2079]

My novel in progress uses third person objective. For reasons nobody understands, the protagonist's life plays out like a TV series with a bizarre adventure happening on a regular schedule every week. Since the reading experience is supposed to emulate a binge watching experience as each chapter depicts an "episode" of his life, the screenplay-like quality serves perfectly. While it is a bit of a challenge to convey characters' inner experiences through entirely visual/dialogue cues, I've found that third person objective has no obligation to be dry or subdued. You can still get a lot of insight out of evocative word choices, or using setting to convey mood. And the narration can still have loads of personality, humor, etc. I agree that POV is a lot of fun to play around with. One trick I've pulled in the past was setting up a misdirection where the first person present narrator dies, then the story follows the person responsible for the death through a third person perspective, only to reveal later that the third person is still the first person narrating from beyond death. Good times!

[@rockbandny]

My favourite pov was from stephen king's misery. As it is mainy third person but it has lots of italics that is 1st and 2nd person. The time machine by h g wells wae 1sr person witness. Btw a Christmas carol is first person omiciant the narrator says stuff like, "I wouldn't guess that a doornail is the deadest piece of ironmongery"

[@nvwest]

There is this Dutch book which is told from the perspective of a painting in what I think is “3rd person objective” and retrospective. The book is on the national list of Dutch literature for high school so it must have been good. I do remember liking it, but been a while since reading it. Would recommend if you like art and family drama: Specht en Zoon by W.J. Otten. Pretty short too, under 200 pages, but idk if it’s translated...

[@Philospectrum]

This Nano I'm trying something reeeaaaally hard to convey. There is, at some point of the novel's narrative, a shift in the protagonist's mind that makes him somekind of a different person than ... well himself, but before the shift. I'm still experimenting different nuances of this along my progression, but for now I've established two distinct rules : The story told with third person - simple past is him remembering himself but more as a judge of what his former self thought at that time in the memory VS the story told with first person - present when the protagonist is just living his current life. It will probably be unsettling for readers, it sure is hard to write, but it's sooo enjoyable to push beyond my writing boundaries.

[@lukasnovella9001]

I love First Person omniscient! I’ve used it twice (oddly enough both for comedy effect) and it’s SO much fun, especially if you have an interesting Narrator. The main one I did was a story told by God. Most of the story is told from what could be 3rd person, but sometimes he goes on a tangent about how he created the world. Y’all should SERIOUSLY try it. It’s great

[@maya-gur695]

First person referral 4EVER! I'm obsessed!

[@ShaelinWrites]

YES

[@HorcruxCupcake8931]

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is written in 1st person omniscient. A girl who has died and is observing the life on Earth she has left behind. It's a really good book to try.

[@AlyssaMatesic]

I love this entire video topic! I love coming across a manuscript with an unusual point of view -- so much fun to read and edit!

[@buttercoconut1624]

oh my gosh i usually write psychological themes and this is so useful!

[@imaginativebibliophile549]

Shaelin, I have been struggling with writing stories lately, but I have been actively working on poetry. In the fiction I write, the narration is usually third-person. However, I have written in first-person referral and it is a lovely point of view. Throughout each struggle, writing stories fill me with light and joy through my characters swarming across my countenance. I love you

[@rachelwritesbooks]

LOVE POV AND YOUR PLANTS 🌱

[@ShaelinWrites]

One is named Figgy (right) the other (left) has not yet been named and I am open to suggestions !!

[@rachelwritesbooks]

@@ShaelinWrites omg Figgy is already the protagonist of a canlit story

I love Gatsby precisely for its point of view, can't believe I never knew how it's called

[@vitalspark6288]

Good example of first person witness would be the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are written from Dr Watson's perspective.

[@Thenoobestgirl]

"The Lost Sisters" novella for "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black is also written in 1st person referral and I found it really interesting and refreshing. It too is told as a (kind of but not really) apology letter by Taryn to Jude in past tense.

[@ianbyrne465]

Parts of Catcher in the Rye are written in 1st referral

[@passantamreltarek9946]

1st person referral is my greatest obsession!! One book that uses it amazingly is Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh. I already recommended this book to you a couple of times, but I've made it my mission in life to make everyone read it. It also has many techniques you talked about in your "favorite writing techniques" video, so I really think you'll love it!

[@ShaelinWrites]

ohh yes I remember you mentioning that book, I need to read it soon!

[@ruriva4931]

1st person referral is really intimate, for a romance I outlined to write at some point the love interest is necessarily distant and kinda enigmatic but using this perspective I'm able to convey intimacy despite this distance. I'm also using present tense which makes the psychic distance much closer. And I love the effect of this.

[@strongben832]

I recently published a book that was built on the idea of progressive POVs. The beginning was 3rd person past, the bulk of the book was 3rd person present , and the epilogue was 3rd person future . The future tense part was fun to write.

[@Eki_________]

I really love writing to create certain moods but they are often hard to describe through the usual emotions. Because of this I end up using 3rd person objective a lot since without the immediate connection to the emotions of the character, a lot more room is opened up for those subtle moods and small details to resonate.

[@soanalaichnam344]

Thank you for this video. I am writing a short story in first person referral now. It is about a father who is telling his dead wife that their son turned into clay. It is a good exercise in worldbuilding for my bigger story (multiple novel lenght) in this world.

[@mikalappalainen2041]

I swear I got three short story ideas watching this video of yours. Stories in which the unconventional point of view is integral part of explaining the characters psyche and their actions. Couple of videos from you are worth more than ten writing guide books from those I have seen! If you ever write a writing guide book, am going to buy it...

[@baxterjaye3984]

A Psychological thriller told in second person instructional sounds AWESOME. Also, first person referral is just what one of my stories needs! It's about obsession and how it leads to tragedy, and the idea of using that POV to make it feel like the reader is the object of the protagonist's affection is just perfect.

[@thunderandwriting]

This video is hardcore inspiration and I love it

[@robertmurrhee6016]

I like the idea of second person future tense. For example: "You'll open the door to find yourself in a small room. You'll look around to find the room unoccupied. The smell of burnt earth will assail your nostrils. Though you will be quite alone, you will find yourself overcome by a sense of impending dread you will not be able to shake."

[@Mikeztarp]

Very interesting! I love how excited you are about points of view (and btw, that is the correct plural). xD Have you read NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy? She does really interesting things with POV, things I can't really explain without spoiling it.

[@עדיעקיבא-ד4ו]

Thank you for this. I think that 1st person referal would be perfect for my WIP.

[@CoraMaria]

I never realised that occasionally I'll use 2nd person instructional in my writing. It's great for adding that extra impact sometimes.

[@mixofreak]

My second book in my epic dark fantasy epic romance tetralogy has the future tense used when an antagonist is under a magical delusion where they keep thinking they are achieving all their hopes and dreams. They aren't the main antagonist, but their influence to the plot of the tetralogy and how they affect some other characters hopefully makes these bits seem all the more satisfying, knowing she doesn't yet realize she's lost in false hopes.

[@thelearningwriter4868]

Exurb1a uses 2nd person future tense in some of his philosophy videos on YT. I think it adds a really neat effect. It's almost like a story about one individual that's implied to be everyone's story. There's a certain sense of fatality to it.

[@st13chet]

High quality creative wisdom 💪

[@Angela-jy8um]

I like your videos, but this one needs cliff notes. Haha. Seriously though, A short definition of each would be a nice addition to the time stamps in the description.

[@paulapoetry]

Your POV videos are the best. I feel, by comparison, that my POV blog post, written a few years ago, gives very much the standard advice. I do have a flash fiction story I wrote that I'd like to read again, just to see exactly what I did. I think it might be third omniscient, and I wrote about past events in the present tense, and the current or subsequent events in past tense. I didn't advance plan this, but felt my way into it. I feel it gives the past more power and immediacy, which I like. Not that it's the best story ever, but I still think it was interesting, how I used tense - whether it was effective or not, the ideas behind it.

[@amiliar2656]

Omg I just realised my novel is in first person referral

[@Диана-я5э1к]

Me too! For a long time I thought I was writing second person and was feeling really guilty of it, like it was the wrong way, and I even considered changin it to normal first person but now wow, guess I'll keep it

[@Thenoobestgirl]

Editor: so what POV are you going to write in? Erin Morgenstern while writing The Night Circus: *YES*

[@write.31]

I have found that writing multiple pov in novels is easier when it's stylized an a allegory if you want lots of pov

[@arandomqueerfanpeep7655]

I'd like to write a story about a person with did where the pov shifts between 1st person single, first person plural, and maybe 3rd or 2nd person when they're feeling pretty dissociated, I feel like it would only work in some sort of present tense, and I'm not sure if I'm skilled enough to pull it off, but theres so little accurate rep of did, and I feel like that style would portray it well

[@ecvitoria6829]

Harrow the Ninth (second book in The Licked Tomb trilogy) uses a type of first person referral (I think), and it is exquisite!!

[@Mia-td9ld]

The Great Gatsby is astonishingly easy to read and you can learn a lot from it eg the first person witness perspective and how to build suspense with a late appearing protagonist

[@sebastianromero7085]

For first person plural you should check, We the Animals. It's such a gorgeous novella/novel

[@ihatemickiegee]

ok just important point before you even get to the meat of the video: your wardrobe is consistently phenomenal, thanks bye

[@Gcherry64]

Super helpful! Thanks for all the ideas :D

[@yohomie4098]

Idea: present progressive tense. Like, the whole time. So for example, She runs to the edge of the cliff and jumps into the water. The water eclipses her senses in a way that she's always loved. She breaks the surface to finally breathe again, and the voices in the air come back into focus. would turn into She's running to the edge of the cliff and jumping into the water. The water is eclipsing her senses in a way that she's always loved. She's breaking the surface to finally breathe again, and the voices in the air are coming back into focus.

[@yohomie4098]

This isn't that weird, but I thought someone might find it interesting (and I hope all of this mostly makes sense): I'm planning to write a story from 6 different characters' first person POVs. The thing, though, is that each of them has their own piece of the book. So character 1 gets the first 50 pages for example, character 2 gets the second 50 pages, and so on. The story itself is centered around these 6 people being total strangers, thrown into a competition that essentially you win if you're the best and quickest at understanding the other people, and uncovering their secrets (meaning that everyone here is trying to hide their true intentions and true selves). So as the story goes on, 1 by 1, the reader learns who each of these characters truly are. Wish me luck!!!!

[@danieltenny817]

Such a cool video, thank you for making us love POV a little more 😁

[@ejwrites1]

That one you mentioned that’s like 1st person mixed with 2nd person reminds me a lot of books and stories written in letters/journal/etc. I can’t remember what that’s called but it’s quite intriguing :)

[@nejohnsonbooks]

I did a first person omniscient short story from the point of view of a psychic. And I had another I called 3rd person almost-omniscient where you can see inside the heads of everyone except the protaganist. I didn't really pull either of them off well, but I think there is potential there.

[@ShaelinWrites]

Those both sound so cool!

[@ollie2111]

I think third person objective would work in a unique way if you focus on body language.

[@clwilliams9276]

I tried posting this before but apparently it deleted so I'll try n sum up what I said before. I think there's a poem I read that might be in a future tense view tho I'm not sure. Also I just realized there is the possibility of writing a Second Person Collective and I def want.

[@RhmnLego]

One book I read in spanish in my teens, i think i was 16. It was in the first person witness. It was pretty interesting it was about this guy the first person who was in love with this girl the main character who was awesome and interesting. At the end of the book you totally fall in love with this girl as this guy was. Rosario Tijeras it is the name of the book. Disclaimer it is pretty brutal also

[@DavePuckett]

Ouch, I'm getting a headache. lol This is definitely an advanced POV lesson. I'm going to have to start at the shallow end of this pool and slowly swim to the deep end.

[@leefluty6141]

6:00 oh. The Zombies song Roses for Emily is much weirder now.

[@f-lorui]

this was super informative and opens up a new way of thinking, thank you ! also, i have to compliment your outfit ♥

[@captainladybug8881]

At least now I know what I'm using when my MC is going into a dissociative state in the story. Basically halfway through it, the main character's (Elliot's) headphones are broken beyond repair and they were his security blanket. Since that happens, he can't just put them on and ignore all the loud and crazy things, so his mind just goes blank. Elliot has a hard time getting out of that state so he says to himself: You need to get up, You need to find Naru, etc.

[@gjungart]

First person omniscient- what comes to my mind is The Lovely Bones, where the narrator Suzie is killed, and then tells us about her family on earth as she watches them from the afterlife. Also Euphoria? Rue describes the life of a different character at the start of each episode, but normally she doesn't know all that, so it's out of character but it's still her. It's interesting.

[@mickeyzeckendorf3886]

i'm envious of your ability to accurately hold up eight fingers on the fly

[@silviatorani]

I'm writing a story in first person referral future tense, where a woman is fantasizing about killing her twin sister and replacing her, but the reader isn't quite sure if it already happened or not. I'm also working on a novel in first person present tense, but for some reason, I keep staying outside the protagonist's head and it feels like writing a screenplay with a lot of subtext. Then Shaelin is like: "Maybe you should change it to third person objective" and you know what? Maybe I will. Also the story could really use that cool and meditative feel.

[@ofgodzeus]

so first person referral is like 'You'? very interesting video!

[@marthaschou]

As an expert on the Great Gatsby (which means I've read it): Yes, it is 1st person witness. And the book is really misunderstood. It's so sad!

[@2010xkr]

If I'm not mistaken the "1st person referral" could be described as a novel written as if it were a letter from one person to another (whether it says so explicitly or not).

[@kimwicks5540]

First person witness is my *favorite* pov ever I'm obssesed with it I want to write everything in this format hsbsjsh

[@kimwicks5540]

Also third person referral is poetic cinema, it's immaculate love it

[@ShaelinWrites]

tHIRD PERSON REFERRAL? this just blew my mind

[@kimwicks5540]

@@ShaelinWrites IDK WHY I WROTE THIRD IT WAS SUPPOSED DO BE FIRST but now I'm wondering how that'd work

[@ShaelinWrites]

Your typo may have just created true brilliance (as all good art is created)

[@vitoriaassuncao7716]

@@kimwicks5540 How does it work?????????? Please, enlighten me.

[@inconspicuouscrab3355]

you really changed my point of view on point of view!

[@valhatan3907]

I once read a story that taken a POV by inanimate object. The object was refrigerator.

[@samus123ful]

My current book has a story that uses an objective point of view. If it is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person Idon'treallyknow, because it is just a bunch of dialogues and a few onomatopeias to give just a sliver of context.

[@damienheaft4765]

very good, I like when a person talks to themselves, like sin city