Selecting a point of view in prose fiction serves much the same function as selecting a specific poetic structure or a specific type of script. Blank verse imposes certain limits on poetic expression. Electing to write a screenplay imposes different limits than writing for stage. Each of the basic points of view imposes certain limits as well as offering certain advantages to an author wishing to fictionalize a story.
There are certain conventions or agreements between author and reader. For example, as has been pointed out, most fiction uses past tense, and the basic convention or understanding between author and reader is that the events being dramatized in a prose form are to be read as if they are happening as one reads about them. The reader knows this is a retelling or reenacting of prior events and chooses to be drawn into the fictional reality to vicariously partake of the dramatic reenactment.
The sole exception to the retelling or reenactment convention is strict 3rd person limited POV. Even 1st person is a retelling of events, but in strict 3rd person limited, the conceit is that everything in the scene is limited to or focused through the consciousness of a single point-of-view character who is experiencing events as they unfold. Therefore, the reader can vicariously experience only what the character experiences and only *as* the character experiences it. Strict 3rd person limited is not a reenactment; rather, it is a real-time dramatization of unfolding events. It cannot be a reenactment of events because the POV character does not yet know the outcome.
Strict 3rd person limited POV restricts how the events may be dramatized. Foreshadowing must be limited to feelings or anxieties experienced by the POV character. A 1st person narrator may foreshadow events by saying, "I didn't know it then, but she would play a big part in my future." and a 3rd omniscient narrator might say, "Although he did not know it, she was destined to play a major role in his future." By contrast, a 3rd person limited POV character is not permitted to speak directly to the reader or to offer up information she/he does not yet have. This limitation even impacts descriptions.
All information, including descriptions, is filtered through the consciousness of the POV character; thus, as with 1st person, physical description of the POV character is often sparse or requires some device to enable the POV character to study her/himself objectively. The same problem applies to familiar settings. A 3rd person limited POV character has no need to describe a setting she/he knows well. In fact, to insert detailed description of a familiar setting is an authorial intrusion in strict 3rd limited POV. Instead, there must be a logical reason for the limited POV character to view a setting with new objectivity if that setting is to be described in detail.
These limits are a major reason that most modern 3rd person stories are written in limited omniscient POV rather than strict 3rd limited POV. Many highly successful authors blend aspects of 3rd limited and omniscient POV, writing in predominately 3rd limited POV while employing conventions and authorial devices more properly associated with omniscient POV.
As for 1st person present tense, it seems to represent an attempt to imply that as with strict 3rd person limited, events are unfolding in the POV character's present, that the POV character is presenting events as they unfold rather than retelling prior events. However, 1st person present tense does not restrict foreshadowing or other devices made possible only if the story is a reenactment of prior events. One could write 1st person present tense as if the POV character has no knowledge of future outcomes, but one is not required to do so by the strict conventions of that POV.
If one wishes to write polished, professional poetry, one needs to know the poetic forms and conventions. If one wishes to tell a fictionalized story, one needs to understand the conventions and limits of the chosen point of view because just as every poem has form and structure, every fictional story must have a point of view.
© 2000 Dave Swinford.
