A third person omniscient point of view in your novel is where the narrator takes a birds eye view of all the characters, knows everything about them and about the world in which your story is taking place. If you need some advice on how to write in third person omniscient, the following 5 tips will get you started.
1. Consider why you want to write from the omniscient perspective.
How It Helps
Different genres of writing require different levels of narrative perspective. If writing a murder mystery, then a first person (told by the detective themselves) or a third person limited perspective (where the reader only knows what the detective knows and discovers) might be more advantageous.
Other genres with multiple main characters, like romance or fantasy, might benefit more from the third person omniscient perspective since the reader needs to see how one character’s actions and motivations impact others. This perspective is also useful in suspense stories if the plot builds to show how seemingly unrelated characters become connected in the end.
How to Include It
Decide how many characters you want to focus on before you decide how to use the omniscient perspective. If you have four or more characters whose actions influence the final climax, then you will want to use the omniscient perspective to narrate what each of those characters are doing in their own scenes.
You can also use the omniscient perspective to show what your characters don’t know by adding short stand-alone scenes or occasional statements which dip into your other characters’ minds or lives. In these cases, try to limit your omniscient perspective to just the information you want your character to be aware of; if the focus of your story is your protagonist’s journey, you don’t want to go too off-topic by including other characters’ life stories or background knowledge.
2. Choose how omniscient you want the narrator to be.
How It Helps
Just because omniscient means “all-knowing” doesn’t mean that the reader knows all. There are different levels of omniscience depending on how much information the reader needs to know for the story to have maximum impact. A suspense story might give a lot of information about only two characters—the protagonist and antagonist—with snippets of side characters’ thoughts about what’s happening.
A fantasy story might switch between a more limited view of different characters and their actions. Consider George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series): he tells the story around six main characters to show how their actions and motivations lead to the devastating ending of the first book and sets the stage for the other books in the series.
How to Include It
Consider how much your reader needs to know in order for the climax of your story to make the highest emotional impact. Does your reader need to know what other, non-main characters think or feel to subvert the reader’s expectations later? Then stay focused mostly on your main protagonist with moments of insight into other characters’ thoughts and motivations where relevant to the plot.
Does your reader need to see what happens to each of your individual main characters for the climax to make sense? Then write entire scenes or chapters focused on a different character and their motivations; you could even use a different tone or style for each of those characters’ scenes so that the reader knows you’ve switched focal characters.
3. Choose a tense (and stick with it).
How It Helps
Stories take place in either the past, present, or the future. The kind of story you are writing will determine whether you want your reader to watch the events as they unfold or whether you are showing the reader the events after they have already happened. This again depends on what kind of story you are writing: suspense and detective stories tend to be written in the present while fantasy and romance tend to take place in the past.
How to Include It
When using the omniscient perspective, make sure all changes in focus or character take place in the same tense as the rest of the story. You should only change tense if there are flashbacks (memories of past events) or flashforwards (flashes of future events) included that are relevant to the story. Even then, those moments need to be obvious, so the reader doesn’t get confused about what’s happening when.
4. Don’t give every detail.
How It Helps
While the omniscient perspective provides the reader with a lot of information, it doesn’t give everything away. Think of it like this: the third person limited perspective is like there’s a camera perched over one character’s shoulder, watching and listening to everything happening with that one character.
The third person omniscient perspective is when the camera is perched above the scene, watching and listening to multiple characters in the same scene. But that scene doesn’t include characters located somewhere else or from another time as the scene happening. The reader doesn’t need to know everything about the characters in the scene, either; they only need to know what’s relevant to the story as it’s taking place.
How to Include It
When you include the thoughts or actions of multiple characters in the same scene, make sure you aren’t over-explaining anything. You don’t need to include references to every character’s past or reasons for being there.
Only include those elements relevant to the story. If you’re writing a suspense thriller like Gone Girl, you only need to include what the police officer thinks of the main character in that scene, not from years or months prior as those details probably don’t matter. Or you can include a short scene separate from the main character, showing how other people are reacting to the mystery, especially if their impressions impact the outcome of the story later on.
5. Don’t spoil the story.
How It Helps
While stories told from the omniscient perspective tend to know everything that’s happening and will happen, those details are revealed deliberately and in such a way as to keep the reader engaged. Omniscient moments often create dramatic irony, which is different from suspense. This dramatic irony provides readers with information the character doesn’t know and changes the reader’s experience from ‘who’ or ‘why’ to ‘when will the main character find that out’?
How to Include It
Decide what your reader needs to know for the story to stay interesting then, while writing and redrafting, make sure your narration never reveals something the reader is supposed to discover for themselves.
If you want the reader to know information the character doesn’t, then drip-feed little hints throughout the story rather than exposing it all at the beginning. You can do this through moments of hearing other characters’ thoughts or short flashbacks or flashforwards. Just make sure those moments give just enough information for the reader to be left waiting for the protagonist to discover the information for themselves.