forum How do I make a 3rd person POV get to know my main character?

Started March 08, 2019 by @BrennaKadavsky

tune

I really prefer to right 3rd person, but I feel like my characters don't show as much of their personality when it's all through the third person instead of first. Any tips?

Are you using limited or omnipresent? Cause the omnipresent lets you read the characters thoughts and motives so you can use that to flesh them out in narration, other than that you can always hint at hidden feelings with their actions. I mean personally I think 3rd Omnipresent is the most freeing form or narration because there's nothing the narrator doesn't know.

I mean I guess you could show their personality through their actions and words. Showing vs. telling, and all that.

Also, this is from a tumblr post that I came across a little while ago, but it seems like it might be helpful:

The key, for me at least, was learning that all discription needs to be filtered through the perceptions of the pov character. If your character doesn’t notice minutiae then don’t describe it….

If you think about it as more of a way to showcase your characters opinions and less as blah blah blah description suddenly it’s a lot more fun to do.

Basic boring description: Lisa walked into her apartment and there was a large green recliner next to the floral couch. The colors on the two pieces of furniture didn’t match. Lisa sat on the recliner.

Character filtered description: Lisa glared at the fussy floral couch that her roommate insisted on getting, but hey, that was the deal they made so Lisa could have her recliner. She knew it was a shabby eyesore in a glaring shade of lime green, but when she sat in it she could almost imagine she was a little girl again, held safe and warm on her father’s lap.

So the description isn’t some passive thing, it’s helping us learn about the character and her motivations. Once you start thinking about it as if you’re looking through the characters eyes it changes everything.

Here's the post if you want to read the full thing. It was originally made in reference to describing things too much/not enough. But I think this is a good example of how you can still show who your character is with a 3rd person POV.

If you're writing in 3rd person limited, remember that the narrator is your character, so all of their thoughts and knowledge and opinions are included in the narration.

Thank you all so much! I have a bunch of ideas I'm going to try, and I've never though of filtering everything through my character like that to only include things the way they see them. Thanks!

You're welcome :)