In this post, we look at the fourth person viewpoint.
You’ve typed ‘The End’, put the manuscript away for three months, and are now settling down to the first edit. But something is wrong. The book doesn’t feel right, but you can’t pin it down. While the problem may be something big like plot, characters, length etc., it could simply be something much smaller.
7 Changes That Could Rescue Your Novel
- Changing the sex of your protagonist or antagonist.
- Changing the age of your protagonist or antagonist.
- Reducing the number of characters. Your hero or heroine only needs one side kick, not ten.
- Giving your hero a side-kick, even if it’s a dog.
- Changing your character’s voice. Is your book a thriller but the hero sounds more like Bertie Wooster than James Bond?
- Change the tense of your book. Most books are written in past tense. Putting it into present tense can add drama. If you’re really brave you could try future tense.
- Change the viewpoint (POV) of your book. Most books are written in either third person – he, she, they, or first person – I, me, mine. Second person – you, yours, is a harder voice to tackle. Then, there’s the fourth person – we, us, our, ours.
The Fourth Person – A Closer Look
To sustain a first-person plural voice you have to know, and deeply understand the community for whom you are speaking. And you have to speak in their ‘language’. Even if it’s a fictional community. Every community is made of members with differing points of view. Being able to meld all of them together so that they speak with one voice and shared emotions or memories isn’t for the fainthearted.
‘We were in the Underground when the bombs fell. Even so far below the streets of London, the terror was a fog we all huddled under. The weird thing was, when they fell, the bombs, we spoke in whispers to each other, as if the Germans could hear us. Us deep in the earth, and them up there in the night sky.’
The Pros of Writing In The Fourth Person
- It could make your book stand out among the majority which are written in first and third person.
- It could make your novel richer and more memorable.
- You can tackle big themes on a broader level than you could in first person.
- You can show how events affect a whole community.
- You can write characters that are separate-but-one. Perhaps someone with a multiple personality disorder whose personalities are aware of each other. Or supernatural characters. Take the Gerasenes man possessed by demons, for example, in the Biblical account in Luke 8:26-39.
‘Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. They begged Him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So, He gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.’ - It could be a great technique for a murder story. After all, if more than one person is involved in the murder, even if one is on the witness stand, they will talk about it in the fourth person.
‘We knew Neil was stealing from us, so we laid a trap. If he took the money again, he’d die. At first, we hadn’t figured out how, but then Jenny discovered he was afraid of small spaces. That’s when our plan came together.’
The Cons of Writing In The Fourth Person
- Unlike first or second person which puts your reader right into the middle of the action and reads it as if it is happening to them, the fourth person moves your reader further away from the action. Even further than third person.
- Your readers will, of necessity, have a different reading experience, and they’ll need to become involved with the novel in a possibly unfamiliar way.
- Can you sustain a novel of approximately eighty thousand words in the fourth person? If you are a new writer, it would be best to develop a strong grasp of first, second, and third person before tackling the fourth.
- It would be best to put the novel aside and write a number of short stories in the fourth person to really nail down your technique. Then try three or four chapters of the book.
- You will need to work hard to avoid overusing ‘we’.
‘We went to the train station. Buying the tickets, we walked onto the platform and waited. We were tired and thirsty. We wondered if we had time to nip to the station café. We decided to risk it.’
- You may find that you will need to use another POV in the novel to complement the fourth person narrative if you want to show an individual’s response. War physically uproots communities, towns, and villages. The experience of war uproots individuals mentally, resulting in PTSD.
Last Word
Experimenting with different tenses, voices, points of view, genres, etc., is what makes writing an exciting journey. If you would like to learn how to write in first, second, third, or fourth person, sign up for a course with Writers Write. It’s the perfect place to learn.
by Elaine Dodge. Author of The Harcourts of Canada series and The Device Hunter, Elaine trained as a graphic designer, then worked in design, advertising, and broadcast television. She now creates content, mostly in written form, including ghost writing business books, for clients across the globe, but would much rather be drafting her books and short stories.
More Posts From Elaine
- Hilary Mantel & Writing Historical Fiction
- Why Writing Is Like Swimming In The Sea
- The Art Of Introducing A Character
- I Know I Should Care, But Do I?
- Thanksgiving – The Legend, The Truth, & How To Write About It
- Jamie Oliver & How To Write Inclusivity Correctly
- A Comparison Of 5 Novel Editing Platforms
- How Much Can I Write Between 1 November And 31 December?
- A Comparison of 6 Novel Writing Software
- Sweating The Small Stuff – Focusing On Details To Make Your Character More Real And Rounded
1 thought on “The Fourth Person Viewpoint”
Interesting… I might experiment with that one…
Comments are closed.