POV: Omniscient Third Vs Limited Third (With Examples)

One of the biggest struggles I see new writers (and sometimes experienced writers) have is using third person POV storytelling well. There are two POVs you can use in third person: Omniscient or Limited. The difference between the two is subtle yet very important to understand. If you do either wrong or mix the two, readers will feel confused or frustrated. Let’s look at them both, their differences, and some side-by-side examples.

If you need a reminder about the POVs, check out my posts on three point of views: first person, third person omniscient, and third person limited. Today, we are focusing on just third person, meaning the story is told with pronouns like he and she.

Difference Between Omniscient Third And Limited Third

While there are several differences between these POVs, which you can see listed in the sections below, there is one fundamental difference between the two. The biggest contrast between third person omniscient and third person limited is the narration’s distance from the characters and, therefore, the readers. Omniscient narration is a bird’s eye view of the story and all its moving pieces, while Limited narration is a close-up view of the story and what a character experiences.

Does this concept sound familiar? If you’ve been following my posts for a while, it should. What I’m talking about is deep POV. Third person limited has also been called Close or Near Third, and that’s because writers have realized that writing in Limited Third means writing in deep POV. That’s the main difference between Omniscient and Limited. Limited Third is written in deep POV, and Omniscient Third is not.

Deep POV has become increasingly more popular because readers love being in their character’s head and experiencing the story through that person. Omniscient doesn’t allow that so you’ll find most examples of this POV style are older classics (The Lord of the Rings, Little Women, A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter, Crime and Punishment, The Three Musketeers, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, etc.). That isn’t to say writers don’t use it today, but it isn’t as popular as Limited. Let’s look at a simple list that describes the main accepts of third person omniscient and third person limited, then we’ll get into examples.

Third Person Omniscient

• An all-knowing narrator tells the story from a viewpoint outside the story.
• The narrator never tells anything from a character’s perspective.
• The narrator can only observe characters and make informative conclusions about their feelings and motivations.
• Omniscient Third is all about observing and often tends toward telling rather than showing.

Third Person Limited

• The story is told from a single character’s perspective at a time, using section or chapter breaks to switch POVs.
• Everything is colored by the character’s worldview and only the things he notices can be included in the narrative.
• Since the readers are put into the character’s mind, they experience the character’s thoughts and feelings as they happen.
• Limited Third is all about experiencing and often tends toward showing rather than telling.

Examples

Because everything is always clearer with examples, I’m going to take two excerpts from two books to illustrate the differences. These books are written in third person omniscient. Therefore, I’m going to show the original opening passage, then follow it with a rewrite of the passage in third person limited. I wrote these examples in an attempt to highlight the differences in the POVs so please don’t judge me too harshly for my attempts at rewriting these wonderful stories.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Every book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is written in third person omniscient. I chose this book since it starts in a scene with Harry, who would be the POV if the series was written in Limited Third. Here is the opening paragraph.

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, he really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a wizard.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

The book’s opening paragraph is in Omniscient Third POV because it’s an outsider’s opinion and observational. No one thinks of themselves as unusual, especially not a teenage boy. It’s clearly an outside opinion. Then the narrator proceeds to list some observations as reasons he’s odd: he hates summer holidays and wants to do homework. Oh, and he’s a wizard. The narrator has a fun voice, but it’s not Harry’s voice. We don’t feel his emotions or see his perspective.

Now, let’s look at my version in Limited Third.

Harry Potter just wanted to do his homework. Really, he wanted summer to be over so he could return to school. Instead, he was at his Uncle and Aunt’s house hiding under a blanket with a flashlight in the dead of night trying to write an essay. An essay on how witch burning in the fourteenth century was completely pointless, because that’s a completely normal school subject for a wizard…even if Harry’s family didn’t approve.

In the rewrite, I tried to give the same information but through Harry’s eyes. Instead of pointing out Harry is odd and listing why, I just show what Harry wants: to do his homework and be at school. Readers can deduce for themselves that Harry is an odd boy for wanting these things.

Also, I tried to convey his frustration with how I worded what he is currently doing. Prepositional phrase after propositional phrase (at his Uncle and Aunt’s house, under a blanket, with a flashlight, in the dead of night) gives the sentence a feeling of annoyance as he ticks off on his fingers all the things he’s forced to do. I also repeat the word “completely” like an annoying echo, and I end the paragraph with a jab at his Aunt and Uncle like a mental eye-roll.

Then the last sentence shows why he’s going through so much trouble just for homework. He’s getting to write an essay on a cool topic because he goes to wizard school! He doesn’t point out he’s a wizard like the Omniscient narrator did. He’s focused on his task: writing an essay for wizard school. By showing that, I hint to the readers that Harry is a wizard. No need for him to state it.

Never Flinch

I wanted to include a book published in the last couple of years to show that third person omniscient isn’t dead. Stephen King often writes in this POV so I chose his book, Never Flinch. To shorten the excerpt, I left out the first several paragraphs describing the town and a NA/AA meeting taking place that night. Below is when Stephen starts focusing on the characters after the meeting ended.

One man is stopped by Reverend Mike, who also attends this meeting and many others on a regular basis; the Rev is a recovering opioid addict. In meetings (he attends two or three every day, weekends included) he introduces himself by saying, “I love God, but otherwise I’m just another fiend.” This always gets nods and murmurs of approval, although some old-timers find him a bit tiresome. They call him Big Book Mike for his habit of quoting (verbatim) long passages from the AA handbook.
Now the Rev gives the man a soul shake. “Not used to seeing you around these parts, Trig. You must live upstate.”
Trig doesn’t but doesn’t say so. He has his reasons for going to meetings out of the city where recognition is unlikely, but today was an emergency: hit a meeting or drink, and after taking the first drink, all choices would be gone. He knows this from personal experience.

Never Flinch by Stephen King

This scene is Omniscient Third because the narrator tells us of the Rev’s past and Trig’s secrets. If we were in Limited Third, only one of those could be on the page as these men don’t know this information about each other. But Omniscient Third is an all-knowing narrator so this works.

Also, notice these paragraphs read very observational. We have an action (a man being stopped by the Rev), then backstory. Then we have another action and dialogue, followed by observations about Trig. The last paragraph reads more like observations than interiority because we have phrases like: “he has his reasons” and “he knows.” It’s like the narrator is telling us what we need to know to understand Trig.

Now, let’s see it in Limited Third.

Before Trig could scurry out into the dark and drizzle, Reverend Mike lay a warm hand on his shoulder.
The Rev had introduced himself in the meeting by saying, “I love God, but otherwise I’m just another fiend.” Trig had nodded while others murmured in approval, but the old woman sitting beside Trig had just sighed and shook her head. After an hour of listening to the Rev, Trig understood why. The man could quote the AA handbook as perfectly as most would expect him to know the Bible.
Now the Rev’s enthusiasm runs through his hand and gives Trig a soul shake. “Not used to seeing you around these parts, Trig. You must live upstate.”
Not true, but Trig doesn’t say so. He usually goes to meetings out of the city where recognition is unlikely, but today was an emergency: hit a meeting or drink, and after taking the first drink, all choices would be gone. Just ask his past self.

In the rewrite, I took on Trig’s POV and showed only what he feels and knows. The opening phrase “Before Trig could” conveys some feeling. It’s like he wanted to get away but couldn’t make it. Then I skip the Rev’s backstory. Trig wouldn’t know that. Instead, I focused on Trig’s experience with the Rev at the meeting and what he learned. For instance, Trig knew how the Rev introduced himself, but not that he always says the same thing at every meeting.

The main area I want to draw attention to is the last paragraph. It reads so similar in both versions, yet there are very clear differences that make them feel just a bit different. I’m going to put them side-by-side to make seeing them easier and then go through each sentence.

The first sentences convey the exact same thing but in slightly different ways. The Omniscient Third one reads as an observation. The narrator observed that Trig doesn’t live elsewhere but he doesn’t speak up to say so. While this could have been left alone and used as a Limited Third statement, I felt it needed to be in an even deeper POV. I changed “Trig doesn’t” to “Not true” so the Limited Third POV feels almost as if we have Trig’s thoughts on the page. It’s a phrase someone would think, and makes the narration feel more like it’s in Trig’s personality and viewpoint.

The second sentence explains why Trig doesn’t usually go to this meeting and why that changed today. In the Omniscient Third, the narrator tells us “he has his reasons.” In the Limited Third, Trig states his reason instead of saying, “I have my reasons.” The narration goes straight to his reason: he goes to other places so he isn’t recognized. Readers understand it’s his reason without him stating it.

The second half of sentence two stays exactly the same in both Omniscient Third and Limited Third because it can be read in two ways: a narrator explaining things to readers who don’t understand addiction, or an addict giving his reasons and motivations for his actions. In Limited Third, that part of the sentence feels like he’s reminding himself why he did it and why it’s important.

The last sentence in the Omniscient Third is a clear observation: Trig has personal experience in addiction. There is no emotion in the statement. Just backstory. In Limited Third, I wrote “Just ask his past self.” It conveys the same meaning, but feels more personal. The Limited version has more voice and feels like he’s putting his problems on someone else—my past self, not me. Maybe he thinks he’s past that now and it isn’t his life anymore.

Final Thoughts

The difference between third person omniscient and third person limited POVs is hard to grasp, especially just by reading about it. I hope I’ve done a good job of explaining and showing the differences. Really, the best way to learn this is to practice it and find someone who knows it to give you feedback. If you want an exercise to practice these, take older classics that are written in Omniscient and try rewriting them in Limited. By doing it, you’ll start seeing all the little tricks that make it either Omniscient Third or Limited Third.

Thanks for reading!

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