Point of View – Third Person
The last point of view is third person. This is the most common and most popular of the three. There are also three divisions within the third person perspective: third person close, third person omniscient, and third person multiple.
Third person close is almost the same as first person, only using he and she instead of I and me. You only see into one person’s thoughts and only know what they know.
Third person omniscient is like playing God. You can see into everyone’s thoughts at any time. This takes an expert amount of skill to pull of successfully, because the transitions into character’s heads need to be at just the right time for the right amount of time in your book to not confuse the heck out of readers.
Finally, third person multiple is like third person close, but each scene or chapter is from a different character’s perspective. You only know the thoughts of one character while they’re narrating their part of the story, and in the next chapter you only know the thoughts of the second character, etc. This “head hopping” can be annoying and also takes quite a strong writer to pull off efficiently.
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