Many of us writing memoir are used to writing from the first person (I) point of view. Others of us write fiction in the first person, often as an autobiographically-based main character. Some of us write in third person (he or she) when we want to tell an autobiographical story but feel too close to it emotionally and think we will find some protection in using third person as we tell the story. Occasionally, especially in a flash piece, we adopt the second person (you) point of view, pulling the reader into our experience by telling them what they would be doing if they were in our situation.

Here’s a quick guide to point of view:

• First person uses the “I” narrator. A reader can only experience this story through the “I’s” eyes, never knowing anything but what the “I” experienced.
• Second person point of view (you) has an instructional sound: Put the vegetables in a pan with oil and garlic and then you roast them for 40 minutes. But if you use the second person as some writers do, especially in short pieces, the instructional tone can benefit the writing: telling the reader “you ride the waves onto the shore, your bathing suit full of sand” does have a way of bringing the reader close to the writer’s experience.
• Third person POV means the narrator is not a character in your story. Common in novels, the narrator is telling the story of a he or a she.  There are three main types of third person points of view:
  • Third person limited means the narrator views the action from inside the character’s head and also from a place of more information but that information is always about what impacts the main character.
  • Third Person Multiple means the narrator follows more characters in the story. Switches from one character to another’s point of view might be made obvious with chapter or section breaks.
  • Third Person Omniscient means the narrator knows everything and doesn’t have to stay inside one or a few characters’ heads. Imagine God telling the story of our current election, the candidates and the voters. The narrator can know things that others don’t, including making comments about what’s happening, and this narrator can see inside the minds of other characters.

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I have created the following prompts to help memoir writers and short fiction writers find out more about the people in their memoirs- and stories-in-progress. Each of these 20 prompts helps you delve into writing out the way people see the same things very differently. That helps you stretch your understanding of how to make characters full-bodied. Even if in the end you stick to first person, having taken a bit of time to write from someone else’s point of view, you will find that not only they, but you become well-rounded characters your reader cares about.

1. In the first person, write three versions of a particular trying situation (i.e. the family car has broken down, a teen is out after curfew, the cat has disappeared): one from the point of view of an adolescent, another from the point of view of his mother or father, and a third from the point of view of his sibling.  And if you’d like, try at least one in past tense and at least one in present tense.
2. Think of a situation in which characters would want different outcomes:  parents wanting to go out for the evening, young children wanting them to stay home; young adults wanting a reason to move away from home, parents wanting them to stay close; kids wanting a teacher to “waste” time in class, teacher wanting to get through a lesson. Write the story of the struggle by switching point of view back and forth between the parties. Each party can be in third person or one can be in first person and the others in third person. One might even be in second person.
3. Tell a story through letters in which two characters are trying to explain a situation to a third party.  Write each character’s letters to the third party and those of the third party back to each of them.
4. Create a character who would be considered an unreliable narrator–someone in deep denial, for instance, about why he lost his job or perhaps someone who knows no science but has ideas about why things work the way they do.  Write an explanation of an event from this character’s unreliable viewpoint. You can choose first, second or third person here.
5. Experiment with third-person subjective point of view by writing what a character is thinking as she jumps off a hillside to go hang gliding for the first time (or choose some other daring activity. Write about the character’s decision to take up the sport or at least to try it and what she is thinking as she is about to do it for the first time. In this case, you are in the mind of the character.
6. Experiment with the third-person objective point of view by writing about a character that is doing something daring for the first time–hang gliding, skydiving, rock climbing, for instance.   From this point of view you cannot reveal what the character is thinking, only what is going on outside of the character’s mind that can be observed by a separate party.
7. Use the third person flexible point of view (or third person limited omniscient as it is also called) by writing about a person who is involved in a daring action. Mix in writing that tells what is in the person’s head and writing about things anyone could notice without going into the character’s head.
8. In the second-person point of view, the speaker in a story is talking to someone using the pronoun “you” to keep the narrative going.  Explain a typical day for a character by having that character tell a “you” what the “you” would do if they were living the character’s day.
9. In the first-person collective point of view (we), a character speaks for a group, making it seem that everyone in the town, fraternity, family, neighborhood, business group think or thought the same thing.  Write from this point of view, explaining what the group thought and believed and how the group found out something that changed everyone’s thoughts.
10. Try stream of consciousness writing — jot down snatches of your own or your characters’ thoughts in phrases rather than complete sentences.
11. Write a diary entry by an unreliable narrator (or yourself when blinded by high emotion). Now write a diary entry about the same day from the point of view of a reliable narrator (or yourself when reason returns).
12. Imagine three characters being questioned about whether they’d done something wrong.  Think of a specific deed and specific place and time in which the deed took place.  Write the story of their alibis or lies from the point of view of a questioner.
13. Write a scene from the point of view of someone who is jealous. Then write it from the point of view of someone who is clueless about the other’s jealousy.
14. Write a scene in which an omniscient narrator observes your day in great detail. Then to make it interesting, write a letter to this narrator objecting to the detail and focus.
15. Take a nonhuman point of view about a place, situation, person or process of making or doing something. Write from the nonhuman’s point of view including enough detail about the speaker and what the speaker would be especially tuned into that the reader finds the speaker believable.
16. Explain the significance of a $20 bill lying on the front steps of a building from the point of view of a homeless person, a lawyer, and a welfare mother.
17. Write about a spontaneous parade from the center of a downtrodden town to the center of a neighboring gentrified town from the point of view of the downtrodden town’s mayor.  Now try the point of view of the wealthier town’s mayor.
18. What happens when a country person arrives in a busy city?  Place such a person on street or in a building lobby in the city and write about what he or she sees in a place of unfamiliarity. Now put a city person in the country somewhere. Write what he or she sees from a stance of unfamiliarity.
19. What happens when an adult pretends to be a child? Put an adult character in a room of kids involved in a particular activity.  Write about what the adult looks like from the child’s point of view.
20. Imagine you have prepared a speech. What is your topic? What is your audience’s point of view? Acknowledge it and continue with a speech that dissents from that, revealing a dissenting point of view.