In every romance, there’s a happy ending. That’s what readers expect. The best romances are ones with emotional impact. Currently, in the majority of romances the third person point of view is preferred and limited to the hero and the heroine. This works well for romances. The reader gets to know the internal thoughts of both characters and that helps to build the emotional impact in the story.
This is not to say that all romances have been written in the same way. I have a fondness for the old gothics written by Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Dorothy Eden, and Barbara Michaels. Those stories were written in first person from only the heroine’s point of view. I loved those books and I still do. I’ve reread several of them.
Some readers hate first person point of view, but there are many writers who have been cleverly adept with it. It pulls the reader into immediately identifying with the protagonist. Chick Lit uses the same technique. Young adult novels are sometimes written using first person, or a limited third person point of view.
As an author, I prefer to write in the third person point of view--giving both the hero and heroine their own voices. I think it is the most natural way to present the story and to built the emotional impact.
Once I tried adding the villain's point of view in a story, but I changed my mind. I don't like villains. They're evil. I don't want to know what's in their heads. So while the villain remained in the story, his point of view did not.
What are your thoughts on point of view? Which do you prefer?
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