First Person, Third Person, Omniscient

I'm trying to decide the proper Point of View for my new novel.

This isn't the most urgent question. I still have a ton of research to do before I can commit to more than jotting down notes and hypothetical scenes. I have my Short Outline for the novel. If I wrote out a few hypothetical scenes, I could always change the Person they're in later. (That sounds so odd to say, "the Person they're in" but how else would you say it?)

There are pros and cons for each Person. The question is which will best tell this particular story?

Third Person: Third ("he said, she said") is standard and also my usual favorite. I like to have a lot of PoV characters, which rules out First. Third Person is the most flexible, and at the same time, the least obtrusive. In all probability, I will write the novel in third, unless another Person offers something to the story which third cannot. 

Omniscient: Omniscient ("he thought, she thought") used to be standard, but nowadays is frowned upon. There are advantages, however, which, in my opinion, still make this Person worth considering. An omniscient narrator can peer into the thoughts and backgrounds of any character in the story, not just the PoV character or MCs. When you have many bit parts who cannot be PoV characters, but whom you would like to reveal briefly to your reader, omni is the way to go. 

One example of a master at this is Kurt Vonnegut. He will unabashedly take a paragraph to tell you the life history of the gas station attendant washing the windows of the MCs car, even though the attendant has no other role in the story. Vonnegut's point is, "this is a person too, and don't think he doesn't have his own story even if it's not this story." A movie which attempted to do the same thing was Run, Lola, Run.

First Person: First ("I thought he said") is popular among new novelists, who over-identify with their MCs. However, it is also used by master artists, sometimes to deceive the reader with an untrustworthy narrator, other times simply to allow a degree of intimacy with the MC not possible with other methods. First person doesn't allow peeks into other heads, though a narrator may speculate about what other people are thinking. Untrustworthy narrators often tell you -- confidently -- what other people are thinking, but their speculations may be at odds with their observations, for example, in Lolita. I'm not interested in exploring untrustworthy narrators in this particular story.

Since I have four PoV characters, first person would seem to be out of bounds in any case. First limits you to one narrator, right?

Well, not necessarily. It's tricky to pull off, but one can have multiple first person narrators. Two famous examples are the noir mystery novel Laura and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

Right now, I admit, I'm toying with doing multiple first person. I wrote several hypothetical scenes, and third person felt too distant. I loved the intimacy of first. Maybe it felt right because much of my research material is witness depositions and autobiographies, all first person. First person transforms the story from mere narration to testimony. First person also allows my characters to declare their philosophical beliefs, which are not necessarily my own -- or shared by the other characters. Stacking the different first person accounts side by side will allow the reader to see how the characters differ, not just in their experiences, but in their philosophies.

The downside is the danger of confusing the reader. If one changes PoVs, and this is announced by a new name, "Johnny wondered..." "Janey decided..." the reader can make the leap easily. If the reader has only "I wondered..." "I decided..." to go on, it might be more confusing. Of course, I would try to make things clear by writing, "Johnny, London, 1987"  on top of each new section when there is a PoV change, but in my experience, some readers will still flounder.

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For now, I'll write my draft scenes in first. It if doesn't work, I'll change them later.

Do you have a favorite? Do you always write in first or in third? If you switch, how do you determine which Person is best for which story?

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The artwork is from Digital Expressions, and can be found here, along with a lot of other lovely fractals.