Point of View - 3rd Person Limited (cont.)

The first step in learning to inhabit your character, to move fully inside him and let your story happen through him, is to begin to read differently. Notice when you are reading whether the authors are working in first or third person. Notice, whichever point of view they choose, the techniques they use to inhabit their main characters. Then practice. Take your main character and walk her into her bedroom and let her describe that room, first in first person as she would actually talk to us, then in third person where the language is yours but the senses and reactions to the room come through your character.

Try doing that with other places in your story and with other story situations. Let your character think about the problem that is going to form the core of your story. How would he think about what he wants, in first person, in third? Put her in a hot bath or a cold shower and describe the feeling of the water against her skin. After you have tried inhabiting your character in various situations appropriate to your story, begin writing the story itself. Let what you have learned from this exercise flow through your story. Don't sit your character down for long periods to think. Let him think while he's carrying on a conversation with his friends...or being chased down a dark alley. Let her senses bring each moment alive.

In art, limitation is power, and staying with your main character, truly with him, will hold your readers into your story powerfully.

Next time I'll talk about other forms of third person point of view. Once you leave third person limited, other choices come with built-in hazards. It is important, though, that you understand what the choices are and learn to recognize them in your reading, whether or not you are ready to employ them in your own writing.