Third person is arguably the most versatile POV in fiction, provided you harness its power effectively. In this guide, I'll show you how to effectively leverage the strengths of this viewpoint to start a story in third person.
1. Choose between limited, omniscient, or objective
Before you begin, make sure you’re clear on which third-person POV you want to use. There are three to choose from:
Limited third person
In this POV, the narrator only knows what the main “viewpoint” character sees, does, thinks, or feels (although the viewpoint character can change between chapters or scenes). Imagine the narrator is perched on that character’s shoulder throughout the story — sitting so close to their head that they can actually hear the character’s thoughts. This common POV, used by J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and Lois Lowry in The Giver, retains the mystery afforded by first person while also adding reliability.
Omniscient third person
An omniscient narrator knows everything about everyone — their past, present, and future actions, thoughts, and feelings. They’re a time-traveling, teleporting, mind-reading spirit that has nothing better to do than follow the main characters around. This POV, seen in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and Fredrik Backman’s Beartown, lends itself well to dramatic irony and telling complex stories from many different perspectives.
Objective third person
In this less common POV, the narrator is basically a common stalker. They know only what they can learn from spying and eavesdropping on the characters; they have no access to their thoughts or feelings. Famous examples include Ernest Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants and Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon.
Only once you’ve chosen your specific POV can you put pen to paper (or let’s face it, hands to keyboard) and start writing.
2. Use your chosen POV to strengthen your hook
The very first thing you’ll want to write is your hook — something that captures the reader’s interest by raising questions or building tension. While all stories have a hook, how exactly you draw readers in depends on your POV.
One advantage of third person is that it leaves the characters' fates uncertain, increasing the tension. Boyd Morrison begins his novel The Tsunami Countdown in the middle of a catastrophe:
Captain Michael Robb opened his eyes and found himself lying on the cockpit floor. Heat washed over him as if the airliner had been plunged into a blast furnace, and multiple warning horns blared. Blood trickled from his brow, stinging his eye. For a second he lay there, dazed, wondering what had happened. Then he remembered. The impact.
At this point, the reader has no idea whether Michael will survive the crash and is hooked by the high-stakes conflict. In contrast, if the passage were written in first person, readers would assume the Captain lives to tell his tale and the sense of peril would be less acute.
If your story has an omniscient narrator, you can also strengthen your hook with dramatic irony. Telling the reader something your protagonist doesn’t yet know builds suspense — especially if your statement is vague or cryptic.
Matt Haig opens The Midnight Library with:
Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.
The reader is immediately intrigued. Why will Nora decide to die in nineteen years’ time? Since we don’t know when in the book she will make this decision, we are constantly on edge, expecting the worst.
3. Make the most of the outsider’s perspective
Even if your narrator isn’t the omniscient kind, it can be useful to give an outsider’s perspective on your main character.
Although a limited third-person narrator can only relate what your viewpoint character knows, they can still offer a more reliable, impartial, and comprehensive introduction to the protagonist than the character themselves would give.
Agatha Raisin is the viewpoint character in M.C. Beaton’s detective series of the same name. However, in the second paragraph of Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener, the limited third-person narrator tells us:
But she would not admit she had had a lonely time any more than she would admit her prolonged absence had anything to do with her neighbour, James Lacey.
Deep down, Agatha may know the truth, but she is a very proud woman and would never admit to being lovesick if she were the first-person narrator. It’s only because her story is told in third person that we learn of her real feelings.
In omniscient third person, you can go one step further and mention details the protagonist doesn’t notice or know — and will never learn. For example, you could begin by telling the reader how the coming story fits into the bigger picture, like Kurt Vonnegut does in The Sirens of Titan:
Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself.
   But mankind wasn't always so lucky. Less than a century ago men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.
   They could not name even one of the fifty-three portals to the soul.
These portals to the soul are never discovered by the protagonist, Constant, but this opening situates the story just before some sort of future enlightenment and contributes to the absurdist tone of the novel.
4. Give your narrator a voice
The tone is heavily influenced by the narrator’s voice. Rather than narrate events from an entirely neutral standpoint, you can craft an engaging style by adding a hint of personality to the narrator.
In limited third person, you can use the narrator’s voice to subtly reflect the viewpoint character’s personality and/or attitude. The Judge’s List by John Grisham begins:
The call came through the office landline, through a system that was at least twenty years old and had fought off all technological advances. It was taken by a tattooed receptionist named Felicity, a new girl who would be gone before she fully understood the phones.
The telephone call isn’t related in a neutral, unbiased tone. Instead, the account distinctly reflects the viewpoint character Lacy’s despairing attitude toward her dead-end job.Â
Omniscient and objective narrators can have their own unique voice, whether it’s authoritative, sarcastic, or empathetic. Establish the voice now and keep it up throughout the novel.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the narrator’s voice is professorial, wry, and slightly belittling from the very beginning:
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Some omniscient third-person narrators even address the reader directly, breaking the fourth wall. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket opens with:
If you are interested in happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.
This effectively sets the tone for a narrator who is constantly bemoaning the misfortune of the Baudelaires and trying to persuade us to stop reading — which is both funny and memorable.
Use these tips to write a strong opening to your third-person novel. Remember: if your first few paragraphs could work just as well in first person, you’re not making the most of the POV — or you’ve chosen the wrong narrator for your story.
