How Point of View Affects Your Story (Ep203)

·51 min·3 clips

A thriller in first person breaks because the reader already knows less than the protagonist.

1. Writer Craft Podcast episode 203 focuses on point of view in fiction, recorded on October 22, 2025. 2. Valerie Isan, a story analyst and author of women's fiction and memoirs, and Eric Mertz, a ghostwriter and author of paranormal mysteries set in Oregon, lead the discussion. 3. The episode asks which camera lens best tells a story, then tests first person, third person close, third person distant, and omniscient. 4. Valerie defines point of view as "the lens through which you're looking at the story" and says a scene is always filtered through one viewpoint. 5. Eric and Valerie describe first person as the "I" voice and link it to immediacy and rawness. 6. Valerie uses "The Catcher in the Rye" and Holden Caulfield to show how first person can carry a unique voice. 7. The hosts say first person becomes limiting when a manuscript needs to show what the viewpoint character cannot see. 8. Valerie says a mystery can work in first person because the reader is learning with the protagonist. 9. Valerie says a thriller is harder in first person because the reader also sees what the main character does not know. 10. Eric and Valerie move to third person close and argue that it can feel very similar to first person while using "she," "he," or "they." 11. Eric says third person close can support an unreliable-narrator effect better than first person. 12. Valerie says omniscient point of view is a "God lens" that can see everything at once. 13. Eric says sloppy head hopping feels like the writer does not know how to handle the scene. 14. Valerie says the mistake often happens when a narrator enters Sam's head during Charlotte's scene, which counts as author intrusion. 15. Eric argues that physical action, like rolling eyes or body language, can show emotion without naming it. 16. Valerie adds that "distance is a dial and not a switch," so writers can zoom in for sensory detail and zoom out for context. 17. The tone is conversational and instructional, with both hosts interrupting, correcting, and refining each other's examples in real time. 18. The format is a back-and-forth craft lesson with genre examples, editor notes, and repeated returns to the camera metaphor. 19. Writers revising point of view, especially mystery and thriller authors, would get the most from this episode. 20. Readers wanting plot discussion without craft terminology may skip it.

As heard by us

A relaxed primer on how point of view shapes voice, immediacy, and suspense.

Valerie Isan and Eric Mertz keep the conversation moving as they work through point of view out loud, starting with banter and then settling into a plainspoken take on how POV shapes a story.

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Why you'd press play

Want a straight take on why first person feels immediate, and where a thriller starts to wobble?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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