Third Person Limited Narrative Puns

Hours passed before Lucas heard sounds from below. He stood up with a jolt. Probably irrationally, since he wouldn’t be able to fight any of the monsters in those parts if any of them decided to attack him.

What appeared, however, was a girl; only as tall as his chest, and with her legs covered in soot. She breathed laboriously, with hands resting on her knees. Her face was covered in freckles and her teeth uneven. To Lucas, her only redeeming feature, her curly red hair, was dirtied and in a shaggy mop over her head. She wore a tattered fleece over her shirt, which was much too small and dirty. Her pants had seen better times as well. The right side was nothing more than a bunch of shreds. At least she had shoes to protect her feet. Although they were old, barely the right size and the right toebox has come loose from the sole.

>“Dullhead.” Lucas quickly found his bravery again, standing up straight. The jumpscare from a possible monster was long gone. There was no mistaking it. The height, dirt, and general ugliness were a dead giveaway of any dullhead, aside from the lack of any magic.
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>The girl looked up, spooked. She probably didn’t expect anyone to be up here so early.
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>“Wanted to dirty our area too? Leeching from us in the dungeon wasn’t enough? Wanted to use us to try and get some glimpse at magic yourself?” Lucas screamed. How could those leechers dare to try to advance on the dungeon after having done nothing in their lives? When he had to spend his whole life at school listening to boring after boring lectures just for this moment?
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>The girl did nothing but stand frozen in place.
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>“Go back to your cave! Get out of my face before I do something.” Lucas demanded.
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>The girl dashed away into the forest, probably back to the little group of dullheads of hers, to wait until everyone else had entered so they could get inside sneakily.
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>But Lucas was over it already.
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>“Let the others handle it. I don’t care.”
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>The world was full of dullheads outside of the bubbles. Failures who didn’t dare to enter the dungeon when coming of age, or those who never went inside. Those leechers were good for nothing. They probably weren’t even grateful his people send them occasional sustenance, thinking they owed it or something.

EDIT:

In light of the comments I started to think I went into personal hated territory. I actually wanted to write propaganda induce

I’m a novice writer working on such a book, and as well as wanting to better learn my craft, finding books that I can compare to mine will be helpful in the long run.

Apologies if this is too specific a request, i appreciate it’s pretty specific.

I have (at the moment) two main characters who are solving problems. I want to have the 'fly-on-the-wall' type narrative (third person objective), where everything that happens to the characters is easily spelled out, but the primary focus is on two characters, and I will (sometimes) cheat and give the characters thoughts on a given situation. I will only spell out the emotions of the two main characters. I do not want over the shoulder, and I feel that I might get carried away with third-person omniscient.

Can I break the rules of third-person objective when necessary?

Thanks.

Once upon a time...

There was a girl who struggled with trauma in her life. Foster care. DV. Poverty. Homelessness. Neglect and abuse. Loss. Grief.

She worked really hard at maintaining great grades, kept busy in her personal life, and was extremely social and loved to be in the moment because she could capture life’s precious moments by feeling what she felt.

This girl had grit and tenacity.

This same girl began an unhealthy relationship, started using, became a heavy marijuana smoker although her values and morals told her not to before she changed.

Eventually, this girl went into psychosis at 22 and she has changed so so much, a bittersweet experience.

On one hand she learned to practice patience, regulate her emotions, practice self care, and analyze people and situations looking through other perspectives.

However, she now struggles with intrusive thoughts, racing thoughts, anxiety, depression, delusions and hallucinations, hyperactivity, social isolation, hyper vigilance, agitation, and mood swings.

This same girl has thoughts about how life has been shook by her first and only psychosis experience. She constantly relives the trauma that came with this experience. She is suffocated by her thoughts.

She believes she has a higher purpose, knows she is strong. The way she connects with the world and others has evolved. She tells herself “I love you” in the mirror to reassure herself of her love for herself and that “she can get through anything.” She appreciates the beauty in life and all that it brings despite the struggles that her past challenges her with. 💞

I know head-hopping is frowned upon, but I have to wonder whether third person limited (multiple) is also frowned upon in some circles.

I know head-hopping usually occurs when the writer jumps between characters’ perspectives in a single scene; however, do some publishers dislike perspective changes (while staying in third limited) at scene breaks?

Stephen King seems to do this a lot.

Is third L. multiple, perhaps, more acceptable for longer works, works that are less invested in character psychology?

What do you think?

Literally, it’s exactly like the title says. Also, idk, I may delete this later I’m not sure but what the heck I’ve never told anyone this, not even my therapist because tbh, I really don’t know how to talk about this.

Before I get into it, no, I am not asking for a diagnosis for this I really just want to know if, maybe, there are other people out there who might’ve also had a similar experience to me.

I am sometimes active on this sub and wow, it’s helped me to read about other people’s stories and just feel, not alone in the absolute fuckery that was my childhood. Most of it feels like some messed up fever dream of awful things that I just can’t believe are real?? Not gonna go into details unless I’m specifically asked but needless to say, it was bad across the board.

So, the reason I’m making this post. Up until I was about 14? 15? I used to talk about myself in the second (third?) person. I’m not an English teacher so maybe someone in the comments can tell me which one it is but yeah, whichever one, that’s what I used to do.

For example, rather than saying I want to go to the store in my head, as in the inner voice in my head. It would be oh, she wants to go to the store. Or, she has to go do x. I know that sounds really weird but that’s seriously what I used to do.

I never thought this was weird until I got to high school. It was my sophomore year and I remember off hand mentioning this to one of my friends at the time and I got such a weird look. I never realized that other people did not do this until that moment! That’s when I realized hey, maybe this isn’t as normal as I thought it was.

I ended up trying to talk about it to my stepmom. Who, predictably, told me I was making it up and that I was a complete liar and just wanted attention. So, I convinced myself for a long time that’s all it was because I mean I was 14/15. I didn’t know any better.

I’m an adult now and I still sometimes catch myself doing this. I have to remind myself like hey, it’s not someone else doing these things, it’s you. So, I’ve literally had to teach myself to think about myself in the first person.

I know this is a weird one. I don’t even know if this is actually trauma related, relevant to CPTSD, or whatever, but I have to imagine maybe it was a way for my child brain to put a bit of distance between myself and the situation. I really don’t know and because of the aforementioned incident with my stepmom I am way too scared to talk to anyone else irl abou

I've been writing a genre novel, with multiple POV characters each getting their own chapters in third person limited.

However, there is a single character whose fate has made his status very murky to both the other characters and to the reader.

I start off the book with him dying in his own POV chapter, and then he appears in one of the other POV character's chapters as a voice in their head. In the middle of the book he gets at least one more chapter, and will possibly get a third.

Currently, all his scenes are in third person limited, but because of his not-quite-alive status, I've been playing with the idea of switching his narration to 1st person in a way that almost verges on breaking the fourth wall.

So the book would start with a first-person chapter as he lays dying, then about 70% of the way through he'd have another 1st person chapter, and maybe another later. Everything in between would be third-person limited.

Would this switching be too jarring, particularly at the beginning when the book opens in first-person and then quickly moves to third-person for the second chapter?

Can you think of books that pulled off similar back-and-forth switches in a satisfying manner which I could reference?

Hi all, I know questions on POV come up very often, but I've searched this forum and didn't see what I'm looking for so I'll give it another try here:

My novel is in third-person limited following the male protagonist. I also have some short prologue-ish chapters that do not include his POV, a first-person chapter followed by a story-telling mode, and some second-person scenes on dreams/hallucination scenes.

Around 80% of the POV is the male protagonist in third-person limited, but I also have a heroine. So far she is not appearing until Part 2 (around chapter 13), so I don't plan to work on the dual POV mode, but I am considering giving her one or two POV chapters (will still be in third-person limited) in chapter 21 (not sure how many chapters I will end up with but it's around 2/3 of the story).

So my question is: has this ever been done before? Will readers get confused (although they should already be familiar with the heroine by now)? I've seen this in writings in literary traditions in other languages, but I don't think I've seen it pretty often in the current writing trend (I do not intend to go for multiple POVs like the Game of Thrones but only a few chapters.)

Many thanks in advance!

When you're addicted to porn, you enjoy sex in third person - meaning you enjoy seeing two people having sex, rather than having sex yourself. This conditions the brain so much that when you're actually doing it yourself, you won't enjoy it. You'll rather masturbate thinking about you having sex after you're done.

I don't know about you, but personally these are pretty important with regards to what I want to read. It's annoying when I buy a book just to discover it has 10 POVs and I'm really not in the mood for that.

Especially in Fantasy because these are really defining aspects a lot of the time I feel

Nothing revealing or plot breaking - just to spice up the story.

I only recently started writing. Whenever I write discussion between a character and their biological parent the dialogue tags feel clunky.

I try to mix it up with things like mixing father/mother with dad/mom or making their voices distinct so I can use less tags, but I sometimes still feel the need to tag the line with a he said she said.

Any advice on how to alleviate this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Thanks!

Hello, I'm currently writing a third person limited fantasy book, and so far I have delivered the world building through different means of exposition, i.e dialogue.

Now, as I edit, I realize one of the pages are mostly a (necessary) info-dump that the reader needs to know to be able to follow along. Thing is, none of this is from the mc's perspective. He doesn't know this information, and it's also not filtered through another character's pov, either. It's just there in the narrative, summarizing what happened while the mc was elsewhere, and thus not information he knows but information the reader needs to know to be able to follow along. Is it fine to have it this way, i.e a single chapter of omniscience in the middle of a book with third person limited so far, or do I have to rewrite the chapter and try to make a dialogue out of it to introduce the mc (and the reader) to the information that way, even if it's a bit awkward?

SOLVED Hey y’all! I’m new to this subreddit and I’m in need of help. In high school I read this book that was entirely written in third person but in a first person view. If my memory is correct I believe it is also kind of a dystopian book as well, I can’t quite remember. EX : They looked out the window and saw their friend sitting on the bench. They went to say hello but they had already walked away. In the end of the book the main character realizes that they are a single person and the entire narrative changes to only first person. EX (using the above example) : I looked out the window and saw my friend sitting on the bench. I went to say hello but they had already walked away. Every single person I’ve asked about this book they seem to have no memory whatsoever of reading it. I’m trying to read more books this year and I truly just want to reread this book. Please if you have any idea what the book is, let me know! I’m struggling here lol

When they break normal narration style to express the character's opinion in the words the exact character would use. It's very common, either for immersion or as sarcasm, but I've never heard of a term for it.

Edit: Thanks to everyone who said "free indirect discourse."

Hey, I am applying for creative writing grad schools. I mostly write sitcoms and do stand up but I want to transition to fiction writing. For the sample, I want to play to my strengths by writing a really funny sample for my application.

I like writing in 3rd person limited, but all the funny books I've read are either 1st person or 3rd person omniscient.

Any suggestions for 3rd person limited? I'm not looking for clever books I kind of smile too, I want them to be laughing out loud in public funny.

Any suggestions are really appreciated, thanks!

I learnt about POV recently. After knowing differences between third person omniscient and limited, I'm not able to write sticking to one point of view.

Now in the recent story I started, I began by narrating in protagonists point of view. The story came to a halt when he is attacked and becomes unconscious. Will the story be halted till he is awake ? I want to explain the back story regarding the attacks. How do I narrate that ?

Generally with multiple characters, how does one explain what's happening elsewhere, in third person limited when main character is inactive ? Can I take help of other characters ?

Thanks in advance.

Which pov works for an adventure story? Which one can I get the hang of easily?

Hey guys I am having a bit of issue with writing in third person but talking about history of the area or history of the person. Il give you an idea of what I mean,

Is this still third person limited or is this head hopping.

'Jon looked down at the town from the top of the hill and smilied.

The town was originally a ghost town until 1980 when the collapse of the local lumber yard happened and layed off half the workers. '

Or

'Jon looked down at the town from the top of the hill and smilied.

Jon never did have the best eye sight. He got glasses at the age of 11 and because of it never played sport'.

So the story is written third person limited but when there is info relevant to the story am I able to do this? Or is there a better way to do it? And is the history aspect omniscient?

Thanks

Hey there! I've been wanting to figure out my Third Person Limited style for a while now (I've mostly written in first person present or past tense), but narration in Third Person Limited feels... awkward?

Action, and Dialogue, are easy enough. Narration is throwing me for a loop though. Getting into the character's head and such.

I know that, in Third Person Omniscient, the narrator is an unknown external force. In First Person, the narrator is the character itself. What the heck is the narrator in Third Person Limited?

Friends who critique keep telling me my narration feels like a third person omniscient narrator looming over one character, rather than third person limited.

One friend said to write like I would in first person, but with He/She and in past tense.

It still feels awkward though.

I can't wrap my head around it.

If requested, I can post some samples but I figured that'd be better left for the critique thread.

What I mean is that I've heard that some stories in first person would've been better in third-person, and vice-versa. So what types of stories would normally need a first-person?third-person perspective?

(If this doesn't apply to the sub, I'll delete it.)

I’m writing a creative nonfiction book with a narrator in the third person surrounding a cold case and a lot of laughably tragic events that ensued during the decades of investigation, so in a postmodern style, sardonic and dark humored. In one scene I introduce a psychic recommended by the FBI and then to fragment the narrative I notate FBI w/ a footnote.

The footnote is not necessarily relevant to the story, but it will be a lengthy background story on the FBI’s research into psychic phenomenon. Of course this is all true and the documents which detail this research are declassified. But in this footnote I want the narrator to become first-person and speaking about this research as if it is classified and nervously telling the reader what happened, naming the file numbers etc.

I think this will fragment the narrative, make the narrative more intriguing, engage the reader to really trust the narrator, and it will be fun to write.

Can this work?

Side note: the narration would return to third person after this section and the story itself would remain in third person while the footnote would be in first person.

I might be confusing things here so feel free to correct me but you can write a novel where a narrator jumps in a couple of times to explain something about a location or person but still keep it in third person limited?

I’ve only really seen stories written from a first person POV ( as I think it’s just more natural due to the restrictions of the sub). I believe you can still write stories from a third person POV (as long as it’s not omniscient).

I know there must be some bangers out there. Could someone recommend a few?

Thanks!

I'm putting together a tabletop game where players discover stories by moving about a map drawing story cards that correspond to the terrain. The cards contain an obstacle or event to which players respond by using what is available in their hand of inventory items or skill. I haven't done much in the way of writing but I started out using third person and I'm curious about how you think it reads? does it get in the way? I can't use gendered pronouns as the characters are the players so I end up using "their, the group, the one" etc a lot.

If you have any general pointers about the writing its self or ideas about writing pick a path stories that would be appreciated also.

Here are the first two cards plus their outcomes: Forest cards

As of yet I am merely a amateur writer, I’ve been working at it a little for about 3 years now, When I write I don’t let genres influence what I write, it’s a very natural experience, and that also includes the narrative tone I use.

Third person seems to be an apt description for what feels comfortable to me, but from what i can tell this is heavily frowned upon for books in the young adult genre.

My concern is that the book I am currently working on and one day hope to get published, uses third person narration, I have nothing against first person narration and if it felt appropriate I would certainly consider using it, but I feel it would directly effect the story I wrote here, and for the worse at that.

It could be that my book is more suited to another audience, but I’m not convinced it’s adult fiction based on subject matter and overall tone, nor does it feel like middle grade would completely suitable, before publishing it I aim to have someone who is familiar with these distinctions review it, but in the mean time I would be lying if I said this information hasn’t concerned me a little.

Example, he walked over and the red flowers sat like a disease on the counter. “They remind me of her.”

His dialogue is backed up by narration also having a tone of disdain towards the flowers despite third person narration usually being third person and more objective. Is this still just third person?

I really wanted my story to have a witty, sarcastic narrator, in a Douglas Adams style, but I don't feel the need to get into the minds of any character other than the protagonist. Besides witty jokes, the omniscient narrator would be useful to explain things the protagonist isn't experiencing in the moment or couldn't possibly understand, which is a lot in this specific story, for reasons too complex to write here. Trying to describe things with the protagonist's limited understand of the most basic framework ends up sounding very awkward and ineffective.

For example, « I won’t enter into a detailed account of their boyhood and youth, but will only mention a few of the most important events. Of the elder, Ivan, I will only say that he grew into a somewhat morose and reserved, though far from timid boy » (from Brother Karamazov). The narrator insinuates that they know all of the information taking place, but aren’t going to share it all with the reader (thank god because the books already pretty long haha). The last three books that I read were all told by first person narrators and then switched perspectives with other characters who also carried on in first person so I was caught of guard by the omniscient but not present narrator referencing their feelings/thoughts on the story that they’re involved in.

Sorry I don’t have all the lit. terms down to enunciate the point more clearly, but what do you think about this third person narrator who references what they’re thinking about the story that they’re telling?