Re: 1st, 2nd, 3rd - 4th person POV??

Rodlox wrote:
> growing up, I learned how to write...I learned about 1st Person POV (I,
> singular, only writing the thoughts of the narrator) & 3rd Person POV
> (writing the thoughts of everyone in the story) & 2nd Person POV (I've
> been a bit hazy about how often this delves into the thoughts of others).
>
> BUT, more to the point of this thread, I've lately been hearing about
> another -- a "4th Person POV".
>
> anybody have any ideas or theories about what it might be?
>
I don't think the question has to do with "4th Person" as linguists use it
(but I could be wrong....)

When you say "learned to write" I take that to refer to the writing of
fiction. If that's the case, then your statement of "3rd Pers. POV" is
phrased incorrectly--- in 3rd Pers.POV, you're restricted to the
thoughts/actions/views of a _single_ character. Sometimes one
chapter/section will be from one character's POV, another chapter/section
from another's and so on, thus A's clueless behavior in Ch. 1 is explained
by B's comments on it in Ch. 2, while C's comments in Ch. 3 may show that B
was totally off-base etc. etc.; but each chapter is written from a single
POV.

There is another method-- and authors using 3d POV sometimes sidetrack into
it :-) -- namely, the Omniscient Narrator, which/who _does_ know the
"thoughts of everyone in the story". This may be what you mean by 4th Pers.
POV.

(I stopped trying to write fiction long ago, but as I recall, Omniscient
Narrator is easy, but sort of a cop-out; good writers are supposed to
develop characters and illuminate their actions/motivations without
resorting to Playing God. Though I hasten to add that O.N. can be a useful
and legit method sometimes.)

In the various creative writing classes I took waaaaay back when (with a
deliciously bitchy teacher) we had to do exercises in all these methods; 2d
Pers. is the hardest, rather weird, and uncommon in Engl. prose probably for
good reason.

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