First let’s start with something fun.  Do a quick web search of the novels below, glance at the preview, and state who is the narrator and what type of narrator they are:

• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

• A Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

• The Only Story – Julian Barnes

• Swimming Home – Deborah Levy

• One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez

• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

• War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

• Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

• 1984 – George Orwell

• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

• Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel

• Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling

The reason we find this exercise useful is because our first decision as a writer, before we put pen to paper, is who will be the narrator of our novel and from which point of view are we writing.  From whose perspective we will write our story is one of the most crucial decisions a writer will make.