Using an omniscient viewpoint allows a writer to show readers what each character thinks, feels, sees, hears, knows, smells, or tastes at any given moment. Because of this, some authors feel the narrative style offers the most insight into each character.
Rules for Writing With an Omniscient POV
To use an omniscient POV, an author needs to use a third person viewpoint. New York University cautions writers that using this narrative style poses the risk of confusing readers if they fail to use it correctly. Along with this potential danger is the risk of distracting the reader from the story by switching viewpoints.
In order to clue the reader into a POV switch, writers may want to consider using tools to help the reader follow it. These can include the following options:
- Writers can have the viewpoint character touch his or her head in some way to indicate the POV will shift to that person.
- Authors may want to use words like “thought,” “saw,” “knew,” or “wondered” to indicate the viewpoint is from a certain character.
- Writers may want to pass POV along with the action by moving on to the character experiencing the action rather than bringing in the thoughts of the character who passed it.
Authors Can Switch From Female POV to Male
One of the benefits of using an omniscient viewpoint is that an author can switch between characters regardless of the type of point of view. For example, an author can move from a girl’s POV to a mother’s POV or from a male one to a female one.
This can allow the reader to experience a variety of characters on a more intimate level. Writers should keep in mind that a deep point of view can allow readers to connect to one or two characters on a deeper level than an omniscient point of view.
Writers Can Use Narrative Style Where It Fits
There are times when an author may want to slip in an omniscient point of view without writing a novel entirely in it. An example of an omniscient point of view can be seen in Zoey Dean’s The A-List (Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 0-316-73435-7). While the book is mainly told from the perspective of teenager Anna Percy, Dean occasionally uses an omniscient point of view to enhance a scene.
“By the time Adam returned with Anna’s flat water with a twist of lime, he found only forlorn-looking Sam.
But Sam rallied and asked Adam to go add whiskey to the water.”
The first sentence in the example slips into Adam’s POV, because it shows his thoughts on how Sam looks. The verbs “returned” and “found” indicate that Adam is doing the action, but his description of “forlorn-looking” enters his mind.
The second sentence passes control of the viewpoint to Sam. The verbs “rallied” and “asked” indicate she is taking control of the scene, and Dean continues the paragraph in Sam’s POV.
Authors Need to Find the Best Point of View
Writers should decide on a narrative style and stick with it throughout the novel to avoid confusing the reader. In order to determine the best style, an author might want to consider first person or third person viewpoints. For an example detailing how an author can use POV, one can look at the Twilight saga.
While some authors will slip in an omniscient POV on occasion, some editors view this as a point of view breach. To avoid this, writers can look at the definitions for point of view given by the New York University. Zoey Dean’s Talent provides more information on the author and her books.
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