Omniscient POV – Write on the World

Murder Will Out by Jennifer K. Breedlove, releasing February 17, 2026, is the kind of mystery that invites you in with salt air, creaking floorboards, and the promise that something is very wrong behind the prettiest postcard façade. Set on Little North Island off the coast of Maine, this lighter, modern gothic mystery follows Willow Stone, an organist returning to the island she once loved after the sudden death of her godmother, Sue—and it doesn’t take long for memory, grief, and suspicion to start tangling together.

Get your copy of Murder Will Out from my independent online bookstore today!

Breedlove excels at atmosphere. Little North Island feels like the sort of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business and still manages to hide secrets in plain sight. The town’s cast of characters would fit right in at Stars Hollow: the super brainy librarian, the attorney-turned-café owner, the pottery shop proprietor, the crotchety church organ player, and the young woman married to the island’s elderly rich man, who is himself a near-parody of greed and indulgence. Willow is very much the Outsider—with a capital O—returning after years Away (also capitalized, as islanders do), and that social tension quietly fuels the mystery.

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Writing Basics

Writing interior monologue: A god’s-eye view

October 10, 2017October 6, 2017 Mandy Webster

The omniscient narrator can explain what’s going on in the heads of all these people. But, does the reader really need to know what everyone is thinking?

In many ways, the rules for writing in omniscient point of view are almost the exact opposite of those for writing in a closer perspective. In omniscient POV, the narrator isn’t stuck inside the protagonist’s perspective, but instead sees and knows everything. The omniscient narrator can tell the reader what happened five hundred years ago before the protagonist was born and what is happening inside the head of a random lady crossing the street in front of the protagonist’s car (that is, if it’s relevant to the story!)

The more distance you put between the narrator’s POV and the main character’s POV, the harder it is to write interior monologue without using thought tags. In omniscient point of view, the narrator might just need those thought tags to tell the reader what other characters are thinking. But not always, so do ask yourself if there is a better way each time you insert a thought tag! Continue reading “Writing interior monologue: A god’s-eye view” →

Writing Basics

Point of view basics: Third person and omniscient POV in fiction

October 1, 2017October 6, 2017 Mandy Webster

the front cover of Valley of the Bees — My first novel, Valley of the Bees, is written in third person point of view. The entire story is filtered closely through the perspective of the protagonist, Valley Bickerstaff.

So, we’ve discussed first and second person points of view in this series. Today, let’s talk third person and omniscient. In third person POV, a narrator tells a story about characters who are outside himself. From a logistical perspective, both the third person narrator and the omniscient narrator tell the story using, “he,” “she,” and “they.” The difference between these two POVs lies fully in the amount of narrative distance created by the writer.

Third person point of view can be as intimate or distant as you like. You can make it intimate – like first person – by picking one main character and filtering the entire story through his or her POV, using language that character would use and only showing what that character knows. Continue reading “Point of view basics: Third person and omniscient POV in fiction” →