20.14: Third Person Limited
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
4.7 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Third person limited is one of the most popular storytelling lenses. Yet it is often understood differently by various authors and readers. So today we’re diving into the complexities, intricacies, and beautiful constraints of third person limited—don’t worry, we’ll be tackling third person omniscient in our next episode!
With third person limited POV, you get to use some of the tools of first person, while being able to back away from the character a little. We’re going to address the various levels of interiority and proximity that characters are afforded, why this matters, and what it would look like in your own writing.
Homework: Take a scene that you’ve written and write it in the closest third person limited that you can possibly stand. Then, write it again at a slightly more distanced, but still limited, third person. Look at these two scenes side-by-side and ask yourself: what did I do differently in each? What did I emphasize? Then, figure out which perspective you want to use when actually writing this scene.
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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, guess what? The 2025 writing excuses cruise is over 50% sold out. During this week-long masterclass, |
| 0:07.6 | I'm going to be leading writers like yourself through a series of workshops designed to give you the tools to take your writing to the next level. |
| 0:14.3 | Space is limited, but there is still time to secure your spot. We're going to be sailing out of Los Angeles from September 18th |
| 0:21.8 | through 26th. Regardless of where you are in your writing journey, this event is your opportunity |
| 0:27.3 | to learn new skills while exploring the beautiful Mexican Riviera. Whether you're revising a story, |
| 0:33.4 | reworking a character arc, or revitalizing your plot, you'll leave more confident in your current |
| 0:38.2 | story and bolstered by a new set of friends. Join us on board at writingexcuses.com slash retreats. |
| 0:46.6 | This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. |
| 0:52.1 | If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit |
| 0:55.1 | www. www. patreon.com slash writing excuses. |
| 1:01.9 | Season 20, episode 14. |
| 1:05.8 | This is Writing Excuses. |
| 1:08.6 | Third Person Limited. |
| 1:10.4 | I'm Mary Robinette. |
| 1:11.7 | I'm Erin. |
| 1:12.6 | I'm Dongwon. |
| 1:13.3 | I'm Dan. |
| 1:14.2 | And I'm Howard. |
| 1:15.4 | And I'm really excited to talk a little bit today about the third person limited point |
| 1:20.7 | of view as part of our little mini course, mini set of episodes on proximity. |
| 1:27.3 | And the one reason I'm like most excited about this is I feel |
| 1:30.1 | like this is one of the terms in writing that has used the most and understood the least. |
... |
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