Recap - Writelike

The thing to remember from this lesson is that point of view is more than grammatical person: it's a set of interlocking pieces that you can adjust to create different effects based on who knows what about the story world.

That said, there are a lot of permutations, so here's a recap of everything we've explored in this lesson:

There are three types of people involved in a story:

Audience
Narrator
Character

Point of view is about the relationship between these three entities.

Third person

The narrator follows one or more characters and tells the audience what they do in the narrator's own voice, from the narrator's perspective.

Second person

The narrator tries to convince the audience that the audience are the point of view character, using the pronoun 'you'.

First person

The narrator tries to convince the audience that the narrator is the point of view character, using the pronoun 'I'.
They tell the audience what happens in the point of view character's voice, and from their perspective.
The first person storyteller could actually be the real life author (in which case the story is called a recount, memoir, or autobiography).
Or the first person storyteller could be a fictional character narrating a fictional story.

Subjective

The narrator can go inside characters and directly describe their thoughts and feelings.

Objective

The narrator has to stay outside the characters and can only describe their behaviour.
If the narrator wants to describe thoughts and feelings, they can only describe how the character expresses them externally: what they do and say, how they appear or seem to be.
However, even in objective point of view the storyteller is allowed to describe the characters' perceptions, including what they see and hear.

Limited

The narrator chooses one character to act as the point of view character and stays close to them while telling the story.

Alternating

The narrator alternates between multiple point of view characters, typically across scenes or chapters, but obeys the rules of limited point of view while within the scene.

Omniscient

The narrator is not bound to one point of view character, but instead gets to float around and follow whoever they want.
Additionally, if they are using subjective point of view, the narrator can go inside any character they want and describe their inner experiences.
The omniscient storyteller can also describe things that the characters know nothing about—events, history, themes, whatever. It's a 'godlike' perspective.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

Third person

Lots of flexibility, even if limited to one point of view character.
Allows the storyteller to have a voice and attitude that contrasts to the point of view character.
Third person omniscient is good for epics, when the storyteller wants to take a grand, godlike, above-it-all perspective.
Third person objective is good for creating distance between audience and characters, for instance to make them seem more noble, mysterious or surprising.
Third person limited subjective is the best overall choice, sharing many advantages of third and first person.

Second person

Can create a disarming, reflective mood.
Feels a bit artificial and claustrophobic, which can sometimes be a good effect.
Good for games or stories where the audience has agency and can make choices.

First person

Good when the story is primarily about one character's experience and perceptions; when the character is the story.
First person means the storyteller and character need to have the same voice and perspective, which can feel a little claustrophobic, so the character's voice and perspective need to be really compelling to make first person worthwhile.