Today’s guest post is by editor and book coach Heather Garbo.
“Readers don’t notice point-of-view errors. They simply sense that the writing is bad.”
—Sol Stein, Stein on Writing
Novels with omniscient POV once seemed to be disappearing from modern storytelling but recent bestselling books like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett may be changing that. As a book coach and editor, I’m seeing more aspiring authors trying their hand at omniscient POV, too.
Yet it’s commonly acknowledged that omniscient POV is tricky to pull off well, especially for first-time writers. And with first person and close third person POVs dominating the market, there are fewer examples to learn from. Below I outline five guiding principles to help you better understand omniscient POV.
What is omniscient POV?
Often referred to as “godlike,” the omniscient narrator knows and understands everything in the story. They exist outside the characters but can peek into the mind of any character, and translate their thoughts, actions, or appearance. An omniscient narrator is not limited by time or space, so they can tell us what’s happened in the past as well as what will happen in the future. And while they can objectively report the story, they also often pass judgment on the unfolding events with a distinct narrator voice that shapes the reader’s experience of the story.
When it comes to using an omniscient POV, it’s important to remember these three C’s: clarity, consistency, and control.
Clarity
1. The omniscient POV should be established immediately.
The introduction of the omniscient voice in the opening pages is perhaps the most important guideline as it not only sets the tone for the rest of the narrative, but it also immediately signals the POV to the reader. If you don’t make it clear in the first couple of paragraphs that this is an omniscient narrator, it will confuse the reader as they read on.
In the opening paragraph of The Vanishing Half, author Brit Bennett immediately cues the reader that the POV will be omniscient:
The morning one of the lost twins returned to Mallard, Lou LeBon ran to the diner to break the news, and even now, many years later, everyone remembers the shock of sweaty Lou pushing through the glass doors, chest heaving, neckline darkened with his own effort. The barely awake customers clamored around him, ten or so, although more would lie and say that they’d been there too, if only to pretend that this once, they’d witnessed something truly exciting.
Phrases like “everyone remembers” and “barely awake customers” establish the authority of a narrator that’s all-knowing. The depiction of “sweaty Lou” shows that, despite opening with Lou’s experience, we are observing him from outside as the collective crowd does. The awareness that multiple people lie not only shows the narrator’s extensive knowledge, but the gentle jab about the townsfolk wanting to pretend to be part of the excitement is clearly commentary from an outside narrator mildly poking fun.
In Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, the story opens with an omniscient narrator that clearly signals knowledge beyond the characters in the first two lines: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”
2. There should be a strong, distinct narrator voice that adds to the story rather than merely peeking into characters’ minds.
An omniscient narrator is often a character unto themselves. Though all-knowing, an omniscient narrator need not be neutral. It will often make a stronger impression on the reader if they’re opinionated.
In Kirsten Miller’s The Change, the wry, sardonic omniscient narrator not only plainly conveys what they think of this particular character but also shapes how the reader views him:
As the president of the homeowners association, he’d made it clear that the buck stopped with him. One of his first acts had been to fine the elderly lady on Cedar Lane who was infamous for keeping her Christmas decorations up all year round. Eventually her lien grew so large that the HOA foreclosed….He had the power to make people grovel if he wanted—and he always did.
There is no neutrality in this depiction—the narrator makes their derision clear and encourages the reader to feel the same.
However, a narrator’s voice need not always be quite so overt. In Everything I Never Told You, for example, the narrative voice is much more subtle—what the author herself has described as a “quiet” omniscient narrator in interviews. The key to a quiet omniscient narrator is that they still reveal things to the reader that the characters themselves cannot or do not as Ng’s narrator does in those opening lines.
Consistency
3. Omniscient voice should be used consistently throughout the narrative—not showing up in only a few chapters then disappearing.
If that distinct omniscient voice is used too infrequently, it will feel unintentional and confusing. This is a misstep I often see with writers in an early draft. It’s common to use the omniscient voice clearly in chapter and scene openings, but there are also opportunities throughout scenes to remind the reader there is a narrator separate from the characters who is guiding us through the story.
One way to do this is to be mindful of selecting word choices appropriate for the narrator instead of a character. This also applies to how a character is referenced. For example, Miller’s The Change primarily follows three characters, including Nessa. In a flashback, Nessa recalls a summer she spent with her grandmother. The narrator refers to this character as either “Nessa’s grandmother” or by her first name, Dolores. The latter is a small cue to the reader that we are not in the close POV of Nessa, who does not refer to her grandmother by her first name.
Control
4. The narrative needs to be controlled and selective in revealing only thoughts of characters that move the story forward.
We don’t want to hear the thoughts of every single person that is passed on the street—that would simply be noise—unless it’s done in a manner that advances the story.
Revisiting the opening scene from The Vanishing Half, the author gives us tidbits of various conversation:
Lou’s Egg House splintered into a dozen different conversations. The line cook wondered if it had been Desiree after all, since Lou was turning sixty in May and still too vain to wear his eyeglasses. The waitress said that it had to be—even a blind man could spot a Vignes girl and it certainly couldn’t have been that other one. The diners, abandoning grits and eggs on the counter, didn’t care about that Vignes foolishness—who on earth was the dark child?
Each new snatch of conversation isn’t random, but deliberately revealed to move the narrative forward so it doesn’t feel overwhelming or haphazard to the reader.
5. Omniscient POV often demands more elevated prose than other viewpoints.
Not only does a more lyrical sentence construction distinguish the narrator’s voice from other characters, but perhaps because the omniscient POV signals an all-knowing wisdom, the voice must also convey that.
Here’s an example from the opening page of Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow:
On a late December afternoon, in the waning twentieth century, Sam exited a subway car and found the artery to the escalator clogged by an inert mass of people who were gaping at a station advertisement.
Imagine how differently this would read if the passage were recast as, “In December 1999, Sam got off the subway and headed to the escalator only to get stuck behind a large group of people staring at a poster.” This version would be missing the depth and richness of the narrator’s voice where choices like “waning twentieth century” and “clogged by an inert mass” and “gaping” signal prose that is more eloquent and lyrical than everyday speech. It commands attention in a way the second example does not.
More omniscient POV examples
In the current market, omniscient POV is usually found in literary, upmarket or book club fiction—likely because its roots are in the literary genre—although it’s not uncommon in science fiction or fantasy either. As with all writing, the best way to nail the omniscient POV is to study those who have already mastered it well. Be sure to check out these additional recent examples:
- My Friends by Fredrik Backman (2025)
- Death & Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe (2024)
- The Measure by Nikki Erlick (2022)
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (2022)
- Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (2021)
Heather Garbo is an Author Accelerator certified book coach and developmental editor who works with women’s fiction, upmarket and book club fiction writers (re)discovering their writing voices in midlife or later. Heather has a knack for helping writers translate their big ideas to the page, seeing the throughline in a runaway narrative, and helping writers deal with imposter syndrome. Heather has nearly three decades as a communications professional and is the former director of a regional small press. She’s an active member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and co-chair of the 2026 and 2025 WFWA Rising Star Awards. After 25 years in Denver, Heather recently relocated to North Carolina with her family to embrace a slower lifestyle. Learn more at www.garbobookcoaching.com or follow her at Write Your Next Chapter on Substack.
