If you’re a writer, you’ve probably been stuck trying to choose a narrator. It’s easy to see why some authors stress over point of view, there’s so many to choose from! But there’s more than first, second, and third person options to consider. There are less known narrator types that offers their own unique twist.
First-Person Narratives
First-person narrative is a story told using pronouns such as I, me, and my. This most commonly takes one of three narrative forms.
The Protagonist Narrator
This one is pretty self-explanatory. The protagonist is the narrator, so we see the world through their eyes. Everything that happens is colored by the protagonist’s unique voice and worldview. The narrative style offers descriptions and explanations that sound similar to how the protagonist speaks or thinks. The reader is told the hero’s thoughts and emotions which allows the reader to get close to them. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is a great example of this in action.
The Secondary Character Narrator
Similar to stories with a protagonist narrator, a narrative told by a secondary character closely follows the protagonist—but from the perspective of a character that is close to the hero, not the hero themselves. This allows for a more removed observation of the protagonist and the story events without straying too far from the “action.” A classic secondary character narrator is Nick in The Great Gatsby. He narrates the story (incidentally, he is also the main character but not the protagonist, but that’s an article for another day!) and therefore is the lens through which the reader experiences the drama that unfolds in West Egg.
The Unreliable Narrator
An unreliable narrator is just that: unreliable. That is, the author has made a decision to intentionally make a character delusional, forgetful, or otherwise biased in the way they present the story. An unreliable narrator may be a character who deliberately misleads the audience for personal gain. They may also be a character with a misguided perspective. Because the narrator is unreliable, the reader has to read between the lines to find the truth beneath the fiction. Unreliable narrators can also sometimes be found in third-person narratives, but it’s far less common due to the challenge of limiting information. If you ever read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” in your high school English class, you’ve been misled by an unreliable narrator!
Third-Person Narratives
Third-person narration—stories told from a detached narrator using he, she, they, and them—branches into two different categories: limited and omniscient. Whether you decide on limited or omniscient narration, there are more narrator subtypes in third person for you to consider.
The Objective Narrator
An objective narrator is a detached observer. Think of a fly on the wall that can see everything but cannot enter the thoughts of the characters. This narrator never inserts their feelings on events taking place and conveys plot exactly as it happened. They provide an eyewitness account that lets the reader form their own perspective and opinions. As you can probably guess, these types of narrators almost always take on an omniscient view (i.e., they can know and see everything that happens in the story even though they never “enter” the characters’ thoughts in the form of inner monologue.) The narrator in The Lord of the Rings fits into this category. Our narrator is ostensibly Frodo Baggins writing the saga down at the end of his days, but regardless of the narrator’s identity, their approach is decidedly objective.
The Subjective Narrator
Unlike the objective narrator, the subjective narrator has no problem inserting their thoughts or feelings onto the story. This narrator never physically enters the plot but is free to add their commentary or even break the “fourth wall.” This common with a “storyteller” narrative, where the narrator actively acknowledges they’re telling a story. Think Mark Twain’s approach to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. While this style has fallen out of fashion, a more modern take is Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The Character Narrator
The character narrator has become, the most common third-person style in popular fiction. Harry Potter. Jason Bourne. Claire Randall. Bella Swan. Every character in Game of Thrones that gets their own chapter. All of these are narrators that enter into the plot and occupy the same space as a character. This approach blurs the line between character and narrator but it’s not the same as first-person narration. They are by their very definition “limited” narrators because their perspective is limited to that of the character, but they provide what modern readers crave most: immersion. Nothing puts the reader closer to the action than a character narrator, and nothing comes close to the level of emotional resonance you can achieve.
No matter your story, the narrator you choose can completely change the way it’s received. What narrator type do you find yourself drawn to when you sit down to write? It may be worth a second look!
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