We’ve talked about the advantages of a close third-person perspective, but what about the disadvantages? I’ve written a few blog posts detailing the pros and cons of different narrative perspectives. You can find the posts on first-person perspective here: advantages and disadvantages. But today it’s time to finish off looking at close third-person. This narrative perspective is sometimes referred to as limited third-person, which tells you something about the disadvantages right off the bat! Let’s jump in.

The close third-person perspective holds readers at arm’s length

This is the big one. Unlike in first-person, where readers are right there in the head of a character, third person introduces inherent distance. This can make it harder for readers to empathise with your character. It can also make readers feel less invested in your character’s aims or journey.

You can still absolutely find ways to make sure your character is appealing to readers! You just have to be a bit more inventive in finding ways to get the nuances of their personalities and motivations across to readers. Some authors who write in close third-person choose to show the character’s thoughts occurring in italics. This means that readers still get a direct view into the mind of the protagonist.

It leads to a weaker character voice

You might find when writing in close third-person, instead of first-person, that it’s harder to get a sense of character voice across. In first-person, you can convey your character’s personality and inner monologue is much easier to convey. The distance that we mentioned in third-person can result in characters feeling a bit bland or flat.

When writing in third-person, it becomes all the more important to pay attention to the myriad other ways of creating a strong character voice. Think about not just what they say, but the way they say it. Are they consistently blunt? Do they talk around their points? Are they nervous when they talk? Think about how you convey their body language and attitude as well. The nice thing about third-person is that you can communicate more about the way they’re moving. You can point out in a third-person narrative that a character is unconsciously fiddling with their hair, or that they’ve folded their arms defensively. Whereas in first-person you have to consider whether the character would realise what they’re doing, or how they would interpret their own movements.

It’s easier to head-hop in a close third-person perspective

I’ve talked about head-hopping before, so feel free to check out that post for more information on what it is and why it can be a problem. Writing in third-person makes it much easier to accidentally head-hop, conveying information in the narrative that the main character shouldn’t know. Of course, if you’re writing in the omniscient third-person perspective then that isn’t a problem, but we’re talking about close third-person today!

When you’re writing in close third-person, it’s important to think about whether the point of view character would know whatever you’re explaining about other characters. Rather than saying another character is nervous, you should be telling us that they look nervous. Even better, describe what it is the point of view character is observing about them that makes them look nervous!

It makes it harder to play with the unreliable narrator

In first-person, readers are aware that the story is being filtered through the perspective of the main character. And they may or may not be conveying the full story. Or even if they are conveying the full story, it’s the full story as they see it. In a third-person perspective, it’s presumed that the narrator is impartial, and telling the full truth.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for some genres you might want to play with the idea of an unreliable narrator, which could make close third-person a less-than-ideal choice. On the other hand, it does make it easier for your protagonist to hide information from the reader. Since the reader isn’t directly in the character’s head, close third-person can make it easier to build up to an exciting twist or reveal, since you can exercise more control over the information they share. So, there’s always that to consider!

What do you think is the biggest downside of a close third-person point of view?

Do you like to write in this narrative style, or do you prefer first-person? Share your thoughts in the comments!