- [David] Hello, readers.
Today, I wanna talk all about me.
Well, I wanna talk about three things.
First, I wanna talk all about me,
then I'm gonna talk about you,
and then we're gonna talk about them.
David, what are you talking
about, you're probably asking.
Well, in a word, POV.
In three words, point of view.
Every story has a point of view.
It's being told to us
by someone, a narrator.
But who is that narrator?
Understanding the answer to that question
in the stories that you read
will make you a strong reader.
There are three different
flavors of point of view.
First, second, and third person.
First person is when the narrator
is a character in the story.
They use words like I, me, and my.
Here's an example.
I bolted out of bed, grabbed my backpack,
and rushed out the door.
Today was the day I was
finally going to learn
to ride a horse.
First person narrators can only tell us
the parts of the story
that they experienced
or already know about.
If something happens that the
narrator doesn't know about,
we, the reader, won't
know about it either.
Second person is when you
are a character in the story.
This is pretty rare.
A lot of the choose your
own adventure books,
that were popular when I was a kid,
used second person point of view,
but they're not as big as they used to be.
Imagine a guided relaxation recording,
when you think of second person.
(calm music)
You are calm.
Your breathing is slow and even.
You are sitting on a bench,
looking at the ocean.
The ocean is calm, and so are you.
This kind of point of view usually sounds
like it's giving directions
to you, the reader.
The most common point of view in stories
is the third person.
A narrator who isn't a
character in the story.
A third person narrator uses
words like he, she, and they,
for characters in the story,
instead of I, or you.
It lets the story teller
get inside the heads of characters
to see how they're feeling,
or what they're thinking.
Here's an example.
Beni opened his closet
door to grab a jacket,
only to be greeted by
a horrifying monster.
He screamed and ran out of the room,
scared out of his mind.
Inside her monster costume, Rita giggled.
She had tricked her brother!
See how we can follow both Rita and Beni?
The narrator can see what
both of the are thinking
or feeling at the same time.
Now, imagine if that
little snippet were told
from Rita or Beni's first
person's perspectives.
Rita using I, or Beni using I,
instead of a third person POV,
using he or she.
We might see it differently,
reading that story.
From Rita's perspective,
it's a funny prank,
from Beni's, it's super scary.
He just saw a monster.
So to recap, there are three
different types of narration
or points of view in a story.
First person, the narrator is
a character inside the story
and uses words like I or me.
Second person, the narrator
is speaking directly to you,
the reader, and uses the pronoun you.
This is rare and it sounds
like it's giving directions.
And third person, the
narrator is outside the story.
In telling it, they use
words like he, she, and they.
What's the POV of your favorite story?
Is it first person, second, or third?
How would it feel different
if it were told from a
different point of view?
Would the narrator know different things?
I can tell you one thing
I know for certain,
and that's that you can learn anything.
David out.
