An essential part of writing a novel is the point of view selection. This is a choice that a writer makes which will define how your reader will get their information. There is no single way to determine the most effective point of view for a particular story but to me, the essential question is, whose perspective would provide the most interesting window into your story?
There are a number of different possible points of view and this post is not meant to provide an exhaustive summary of these options. A beginning writer should be familiar with the basics of the two most often used POVs, the 1st and 3rd person.
The 1st person occurs when a character is the narrator. In most cases, this is limiting the window to the world to the one mind whose narration we are experiencing. To some extent, when using the first person, we are acknowledging there is going to be some difference between the narrator’s perception and the ultimate truth, as none is ever able to grasp the absolute truth. With a more “official” Unreliable Narrator, the difference between the narration and the reader’s perception is noticeable. With Peripheral 1st person someone other than the protagonist is serving as the narrator. In that way, the narrator is telling someone else’s story. Finally, there is a version of 1st Person POV referred to as Multiple Vision POV, where there are a number of different first person narrators each telling their story in their own voice.
The 3rd Person POV is when the narrator is detached from the story. There are a number of 3rd person perspectives. Single Vision POV is when the narrator is not a character in the novel and only enters the mind of one character. While it is possible to use a Multiple Minds 3rd person, it is important to make sure you spend enough time in each of the different perspectives. Multiple Vision, also referred to as serial limited, occurs when the narrator gets into the minds of two or more characters. In this case, the writer only accesses one mind at a time and makes it abundantly clear whose mind is being accessed at a given time. 3rd Person Omniscient is when the narrator is Godlike, able to enter the minds and experiences of all the characters and can see what the characters cannot, including the past, the present, and the future.
When I first began writing I did not make a conscious choice about POV but just let it flow from my first draft. I found I could more easily get away with such an approach with short-stories but not so much with a longer work. One of my goals has been to develop a greater structure around my writing and found that one of the first steps is making a conscious choice about POV early on. One of the fascinating experiences of writing has been that even when choosing a POV more consciously, once the story begins to develop this initial choice may change. My mentor always said to me a great deal of writing is about choices, and when it comes to POV choosing the right one makes all the difference in the world!