The Omniscient POV

I hate it. I hate the omniscient POV. There, I've said it.

It just... feels like sloppy writing to me. I know that's not true. You can offer counterexamples all day long. But I really just can't make myself do it.

Now the first person I like. There is so much you can do with it! I mean, you've got a built-in way to disguise the identity of the narrator, since they only have to refer to themselves as "I" and "me." If you want to, things like age, race, even gender can be left vague or revealed as necessary. Plus, you've got this window into their mind that is just so intriguing to me. Not to mention, you can start to play around with the conventions of grammar, even turning the exposition and other functional grammar into the character's own voice.

Sometimes that puts you too deep into a character, or you want to be able to more easily switch POVs. For that, I like the 3rd person limited. You get a lot of the same attributes of the first person, although you do have to give the character a name. But when written well, you can get into a character's head and see everyone through their eyes. Both of these are great for the unreliable narrator, which is one of my favorite tools.

But the omniscient POV, well, it strikes me as lazy. It's just not something I can relate to, dipping into one person's head, then another, describing their emotions in objective terms. Because the omniscient narrator is always right. That POV is the God of the story, and He knows all.

Maybe it's just that I'm not so sure of my characters to be able to state in absolute, objective terms what they must be feeling. I'd much rather hear their own thoughts through the filter of their subjective perceptions, or maybe just watch how they react. It seems purer somehow.

If I have to keep myself out of a character's head, give me the third person objective. It's like the omniscient, only without the omniscience. That is, the narrator can go anywhere and see anything that would be available to an observer, but no thoughts and feelings. It's kind of the voyeur perspective.

I don't know what it says about me that in the worlds I create, I'd rather be a voyeur than God. But I do know what is says about me that even more than that, I'd like to be inside the story.