3rd person pov has 3 subcategories:

• 3rd person limited

• 3rd person omniscient

• 3rd person objective

3rd person limited

• You are LIMITED to one main character's perspective.

• There are still other characters in the story, but you don't know what they're thinking/feeling.

• EX: "John ran down the court, dribbling the ball. He passed it to Malik, who made a layup. Looking over at his father, Malik felt proud and excited. The team now led by 2 points."

• (We have 2 characters: John and Malik. However, we only know how Malik is feeling: proud and excited.)

3rd person omniscient

• OMNI = root that means "all"

• SCI = root that means "knowing"

• The narrator is omniscient, meaning they have the power to know all.

• These are your stories where you have multiple characters' perspectives.

• You know how multiple people are feeling when you read this story.

3rd person omniscient example:

John ran down the court, dribbling the ball. He realized he wouldn’t have an opportunity to make a basket, so he looked around and saw that Malik was open. He passed it to Malik, who made a layup. Looking over at his father, Malik felt proud and excited. The team now led by 2 points.

(We know John realizes something about the game, and we know that Malik is feeling proud. So we know what 2 people are thinking.)

3rd person objective

• There's one last type of 3rd person, but it's not very common in literature, so we aren't going to focus on it much.

• Objective means "unbiased, impartial, factual."

• This is when you have the straight facts - NO characters' thoughts or feelings at all.

• EX: "John ran down the court, dribbling the ball. He passed it to Malik, who went up for the layup. Malik made the basket! The team now led by 2 points."

• (We don't know how John or Malik feel. We can only observe what they are doing.)

Practice

Read the following excerpts and determine if the pov is 3rd limited or 3rd omniscient.