Ah, the elusive point of view (pov). There's about three to chose from, and there's different methods to use all of them. Lets jump into this head-on

FIRST PERSON

//long, exasperated sigh

First person is by far the MOST OVERUSED pov on this entire website, and in YA books in general. Honestly, ive begun to hate it.

First person is where the narration is done by a character. We, as the audience, are allowed directly into the narrator's head as they traverse through the story.

But I really dislike first person, as most people dont know how to do it.

First person must utilize tone and voice to provide proper characterization, especially when the first person switches between several characters. You should NOT have to use "[x]'s POV" at the top of every chapter to distinguish narrators. If you do, dont write first person, simple as that.

You are writing from a character's head! You cannot use your regular voice- you must adapt your voice to how the character would think and speak.

While I really dont like first person, it does have uses. First person is good for keeping your main character ambiguous- either in appearance, gender, or species. It can create a good "actually a tomato" scenario, aka keeping the fact that your character is actually a monster or a woman from the audience for the sake of a shock or plot twist.

SECOND PERSON

ah, second person. The pov your English teacher was always like "this is so unused we're not gonna teach it in depth" well fancys gonna actually teach it

Second person is when your character is the audience- youre talking directly to them, describing their actions and thoughts.

Second person is used for self insert stories (like x-readers *shudders*), choose-your-own-adventure-stories, and instructions.

Second person is pretty tricky to use for a book, as you are forcing actions and thoughts onto a reader, thus elimating any kind of choice the pronoun "you" implies.

THIRD PERSON

Third person pov is the use of the pronouns he, she, or they. I prefer this method of writing above all others. There are three catagorie

Limited:

The audience is shown the thoughts/feelings of only one character. It's almost first person, but somewhat less personal. It's best to think of the narrator as in the character's head, but not actually the character. Thus, the tone/voice isnt really needed.

Omniscient:

The audience is shown the thoughts and feelings of everyone.

Objective:

The narrator favors no one, and is neutral.

---

Point of view can define your story and change it radically depending on the style. Find what fits best for your story.