A Sense of Doubt blog post #4020 - Writing Wednesday - Limited Third Person

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4020 - Writing Wednesday - Limited Third Person

Many years ago, I was collaborating on a novel with a friend of mine, and we had an argument about POV.

He wanted to write in omniscient and was hopping about to any character's head that he felt advanced the story.

I was trying to explain to him that most books (well-written books) worked in limited third person or first person.

He could point to examples of books that did not work in limited third person, which were all either classics (a style of another time) or not well-written.

I countered that in modern fiction nearly all well-written books in third person used a limited POV that started at the beginning of the chapter and did not shift without a narrative break or a new chapter, preferably the latter.

I won the argument, and we confined our tale to two or three POVs, I forget.

As I am back to working diligently on a novel project, I think about this issue a lot, especially as I search for topics for my Writing Wednesday posts.

Lately, I have become enamored of Brianna Sarovski's advice and videos.

Mostly, it's validating. I am not doing the things she sees other authors do in regards to mistakes with POV. Occasionally, she shares something either not foremost in my mind, not a natural reflex, or something that I had really not thought about.

More text below the graphic.

Looking at the summary graphic of what's in the video (above), I just naturally remain in the POV without drift or omniscient knowledge. This is pretty easy to do once it's one's mindset. So, I was validated with that.

That also extends to over-interpreting other characters' emotions. I think I am very good about this issue as well, especially in early drafts as I rough out a chapter or scene before I  go back and add depth and detail. In the rough first draft sketch, I am rarely thinking too much of the other characters so that I would reveal more than my POV character should know. I am focused on his or her experience.

Similarly, I believe that I am in the head of the POV character and so I am not pulling back into a more distanced omniscient view, even the bits of information conveyed in the chapter are filtered through the character's POV well.

However, the next two are either things I had not thought of or had not focused enough attention on.

Overloading filter words. This one stopped me cold. Do I do that? As I looked through a recent chapter and a few others, for the most part, I do not write this way. I understand how immediate the narrative can and should be without needing to tell the reader that my POV character saw a thing or SMELLED a thing as recently I was writing about a creature's suffocating stench.

The last one -- Character Voice Not Coloring the Narration -- is definitely something I was not focused on in that rough sketch first draft, not at all, or not enough. This advice was the best takeaway for me for the entire video. I need to keep this writing task ever present in my mind as it's key to everything involved with the narration. And this advice also motivated me to really study some of my favorite books to see how other author's handled this issue.

Bottom line is that I need a better handle on the voices of all my characters, especially the POV characters, because, yes, I am trying to write from multiple POVs in this epic sword and sorcery project.

And this is what I love about other people sharing writing advice.

There's validation. But even if I am not committing those errors, it's good to put them on my radar to make sure I do not commit those errors.

Then there's new things to think about or at least things to focus on that may not have been first and foremost and are really important.

I hope the process is the same for you.

Thanks for tuning in.

Stop Making These 6 Third-Person Limited POV Mistakes

Brianna Sarovski

Premiered Jun 1, 2025

Let’s talk about how to fine-tune your third-person limited narration and stop making these amateur mistakes that kill your story! This video breaks down the six most common third-person limited POV errors new writers make, including omniscient narrator creep, POV drifting, filter word overload, and writing internal thoughts incorrectly. 

I’ll show you how to maintain consistent narrative distance, interpret other characters' emotions properly, and let your character's voice colour the narration. This is for you if you write fantasy, sci-fi, romantasy, thriller, horror… basically any genre, really… to keep readers hooked from page one.

👉 Write your best novel yet with my cheap, digital & printer-friendly writing workbooks: https://plannerpaletteco.etsy.com

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-  Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2602.18 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3884 days ago & DAD = 538 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.