Curtin Writers Club – Peer to Peer Writing Workshop © Kathleen Knight
WEEK 3: POINT OF VIEW (POV) - AN INTERESTING PERSPECTIVE
Coordinator Introduction
DESCRIPTION OF TERM/S (10 mins)
The angle from which a story comes to the reader. The narrator can be:
 1st person (generally an unreliable narrator – only one perspective of the narrative, not
necessarily the main character) - creates immediacy, intimacy, intensity, and sympathy
 2nd person (not used very often in prose, hard to sustain for long narratives, hard to keep
the reader engaged, often used to depict trauma because of its sense of detachment) engages the reader if they agree to be “you”
 3rd person omniscient (total knowledge/God-like, tells reader what to think) - objective
reporting, any character’s mind, anywhere, any time
 3rd person subjective/limited (narrator’s view is limited)- only one character’s mind and
view, mimics real-life (we only have our view of people and events to draw on)
 3rd person objective (external facts only, no inner thoughts are revealed) - limited to only
the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch)
The tale can be told: to The Reader, to another character, to oneself (interior monologue), or
as a stream of consciousness.
Discuss prose, TV shows, movies, gaming, or poetry etc and which POV they use.
WRITING EXERCISE (15 mins)
Write a paragraph from each of these points of view:
 third person (he, she, it, they, <insert name>) starting with “He thinks their home is
messy when he ...”
 first person (I, me, we, us) starting with “I think their home is messy when I ...”
 second person (you) starting with “You think their home is messy when you ...”
EXPLANATION of constructive criticism/feedback and then FIRST READING of the
works. Only feedback if the piece has stayed in the one POV or not. (10 mins)
Further DISCUSS different POVs you’ve encountered. (10 mins)
Some Feedback Terminology for Point of View (POV)
First person
The Author
Perspective
Protagonist/Hero
Intended audience
Second person
The Reader
Psychic distance
Antagonist/Villain
Sympathy
Third person
Narrator
Omniscient
Central narrator
Interior monologue
Unreliable narrator
Character
Limited omniscient
Peripheral narrator
Stream of consciousness
Bibliography (all available in the Curtin Library)
Boisseau, M., Bar-Nadav, H., & Wallace, R. (2012). Writing poems (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson.
Burroway, J., Stuckey-French, E., & Stuckey-French, N. (2015). Writing fiction: A guide to
narrative craft (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Hodgins, J. (2001). A passion for narrative: A guide for writing fiction. Toronto, Canada:
McClelland & Stewart.
Smith, H. (2005). The writing experiment. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Walker, B. (2002). The writer’s reader: A guide to writing fiction and poetry. Broadway, NSW:
Halstead Press.
Please visit our “Curtin Writers Club” Website and/or our Facebook page.
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Curtin Writers Club – Peer to Peer Writing Workshop © Kathleen Knight
WEEK 3: POINT OF VIEW (POV) - AN INTERESTING PERSPECTIVE
POV EXAMPLES
First Person
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or
no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I
would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”
― Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Second Person
“You have friends who actually care about you and speak the language of the inner
self. You have avoided them of late. Your soul is as disheveled as your apartment,
and until you can clean it up a little you don’t want to invite anyone inside.”
― Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Third Person – Omniscient
"That her parents had expected her to be a third son was not the reason Ruth Cole
became a writer; a more likely source of her imagination was that she grew up in a
house where the photographs of her dead brothers were a stronger presence than
any "presence" she detected in either her mother or her father..."
― A Widow for One Year by John Irving
Third Person – Limited
“Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back.”
― Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
“Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have
I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where
it keeps its brain?”
― Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
Third Person – Objective
"They look like white elephants," she said.
"I've never seen one," the man drank his beer.
"No, you wouldn't have."
"I might have," the man said. "Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove
anything."
The girl looked at the bead curtain. "They've painted something on it," she said.
"What does it say?"
"Anis del Toro. It's a drink."
"Could we try it?"
― Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
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