I struggle with the different types of point-of-view that can be used in writing, and found this handy chart in Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermason and Peter Economy to be extremely helpful! I have decided to share it because I'm positive that there are others out there that have problems understanding the POV types as well.
| POV | Description | POV Characters per Scene | Narrator |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Write from inside the head of the POV character, using the pronoun I. | One | A character in the story |
| Third person | Write from inside the head of the POV character, using the pronoun he or she | One | The author |
| Third person objective | Write from outside the head of the POV character, using the pronoun he or she. | None — you never get inside the head of any character | The author |
| Head-hopping | Write from inside the heads of multiple characters in the same scene, using the pronouns he or she. | Multiple | The author |
| Omniscient | Write from inside or outside the heads of multiple characters or from the perspective of a god-like persona who knows things that none of the characters can know. | Multiple | The author |
| Second person | Write from inside the head of the POV character, using the pronoun you. | One | The author |
