How Do I Know Which POV to Use?

A creative and colorful illustration of various writing tools surrounded by different literary characters representing different points of view, such as a narrator, a character, and an audience, showcasing a vibrant storytelling theme.

Choose Your Perfect POV

Are you struggling to determine the best point of view for your writing? This quiz is designed to guide you through the decision-making process by exploring your character and narrative preferences.

Answer a series of questions about your writing style, character development, and story structure, and receive insights tailored to your unique narrative voice. Some key aspects covered include:

Character reliability
World-building scope
Reader perspective alignment

12 Questions3 MinutesCreated by WritingScribe42

It is important to me to be able to write very broadly and not zone in on one specific character the entire time.

True; I like to incorporate information from as many sources as possible.

Mostly true; I still like to write from one character and build the world based on them.

Don't care.

False; it's important that my story is told strictly from my character's exact thoughts.

My main character has a secret that is important to keep from the reader until the end (or whenever I choose to reveal it).

True

False

This does not matter to me.

There are secrets that are kept from my characters that only the reader will know of throughout the course of my story.

Yes, this is how I plan to create suspense./Yes, this is just how it is.

Maybe indirectly, but the reader knows just as much as my character.

No, there's nothing like that. In fact, everything the reader knows is from the character themself.

The true secret is why im taking this quiz since I do not care

How reliant is the plot on your main character's direct and vocal interpretation of their surroundings?

Crucial, it's told through them.

Important, but not intimately.

Not at all.

Dont care + I hate you

It is important for the reader to be as close as possible to my narrator, assuming their mindset.

I would like them to practically be the same when reading.

It's important, but not the priority. It's still my character's story.

Not necessarily.

I would like a pretty distinct divide between narrator and reader.

Dont care

I plan on writing from the perspective of multiple characters--not just my main character.

True, I will write from multiple different, independent perspectives.

False, my one character is enough for me.

I would like to write with multiple characters in mind, allowing me to see multiple characters' thoughts at once.

Do not care

Which is most accurate to your story?

The plot relies on my character specifically to tell the story. Only things that my character would notice tend to be described.

Things are happening in the world I've created and my character is simply a vessel. Events are described beyond only what my character would notice.

A funky mix of the two.

Dont care

Finally, just for fun and since I'm curious, which POV do you tend to write (fiction) in the most?

How Do I Know Which POV to Use?

Choose Your Perfect POV

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