Before I started writing, point of view was only something I’d ever identified in grade eleven English class. I’m a voracious reader of fiction, but it never crossed my mind that a book might be written in first person, third person, objective, omniscient, close, limited, whatever. And I had no awareness of a preference for what I liked to read best — though in retrospect I realize most of my favourite books are either in third limited or omniscient. Indeed, I was well into the first draft of my book before I realized it was something I might want to pay more attention to (No, Lucy, third limited salted with omniscient for flavour and head hopping when you get lazy is *not* usually an effective style).
Now, I angst over it. Will readers care about my heroine if they only encounter her in the third person? Will they be bored of her yapping half way through if I tell the tale in first? Do I have a strong enough narrative voice to write omniscient? Will I get everything in if I stay limited?
And if any of these terms confuse you, Dear Reader (note rarely attempted second person POV), and you want to know what I am talking about, I highly recommend Ursula LeGuin’s Steering the Craft on this question and so many more relating to questions of more advanced writing style and technique.
Ah, POV – it’s much debated in romance fiction circles as well. One of the biggest issues is whether or not there should be more than one POV per scene. General consensus among many of us is that as long as one is skilled at handling POV, anything goes. It’s the skill part that’s key 🙂
I don’t read much historical romance fiction these days, but when I did, I think I preferred a very close third person limited in the heroine’s POV. But there are hero” people and “heroine” people, aren’t there? I’m the latter, I guess.
POV shifts are tricky. Even when they work, there is no doubt that they distance you somewhat from what is going on — which may be just what you want to do sometimes. I learn more about POV from reading than from writing, I think.
The best tip I learned re POV shifts is to show the new POV character experiencing something physical – thus pulling the reader in their head, as they experience the sensation along with the character.
And yes, there are some readers who like very limited POV, while others, like me, are good with two or three. Generally my heroine, hero and villain take turns as POV characters, though the villain usually only pops in from time to time to actually narrate the story.