At the end of the school year, I showed my students a short clip and asked them to notice what they saw. Out of everything that they observed, the one thing differed: the number of mice present. In actuality, there was only one, but many swore that they saw 3 or even 2. It depended on their view point.
Point of view in a story is very similar. Out of your characters, the story will be told differently based on who is telling it. A first person point of view told through the eyes of one character will see their world based on what they can observe. It can be biased depending on the situation, but the fact will remain that the view point will be limited. The same thing goes for a 3rd person limited omniscience. While an omniscient narrator has a larger view point, it is still only limited to that one character, unlike a 3rd person omniscient narrator who knows all the ins-and-outs of everything that is happening in the story.
Think of Point of View like a camera angle. Our 1st person POV is going to be close to the character seeing everything through their eyes. We have more of their inner thoughts as they try to navigate the world around them. This can do one of two things. It can either bring the reader closer to the character or it cause the reader to question the character’s motives. With a 3rd person limited POV, we are above the character with a little more of a view of their life and what is happening around them. While everything is still focused on that character, we get to see them interact with everything from the inside. And the 3d person omniscient POV is where that camera can jump around from character to character and show us everything that is happening in the story.
The biggest thing to remember when it comes to POV is to choose one and stick with it. If you must follow every character in the story, choose a character per chapter. Not all over the place. Following every character in the story for every chapter can be too much. Your reader will never develop a bond with a character. The emotional bond is part of the reading experience. While we may recall a story, most of the time, it is the character that makes it memorable for us in the journey of reading.
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