This lesson is about point of view. This is one of the most basic ways to classify a writing style. The point of view is the perspective from which the story is told. It determines how we perceive the events. From a drunk's perspective, the world reels. From a nearby observer's point of view, the drunk appears terribly unsteady. From a dick's point of view, the drunk looks like a prime target to have his wallet stolen.
First Person: From this point of view, the events are revealed through the eyes and mind of a single character. These tend to use I's a lot.
Second Person: In this perspective, the story is being addressed to the reader. Do you suppose I need to give an example of this to you?
Third Person: In a story with this, the story is told by a narrator who announces all that is occurring. This classification can be divided into three more:
-Omniscient: This pretty much means the narrator has godlike knowledge of what the characters are thinking and doing and tells whatever he/she feels like to the reader.
-Subjective: This is first person with a narrator to relate the story instead of the person whose point of view is being followed.
-Objective: Nothing but what is seen and heard by the narrator is told to the reader. This seems rather like a newspaper report, except it doesn't have much interference from opinion.
There are right ways to write a certain story and there are wrong ways. There's a reason no one's ever written a murder-suspense from the perspective of the killer. Oh, wait, a few of those have been written. Now, on the other hand, absolutely no book has ever been written in the third person objective view about a revolutionary movement – What? Someone wrote one of those? Shoot…
Anyways, let's get back on task. It is necessary that you choose to write your story from a perspective that you are familiar with and suits the kind of story you're writing. Perspective helps set the rate at which information is divulged and the reader can be fooled or enlightened by the way you write it.
There's not much more that can be said about point of view, except that you should use whatever style you choose consistently. I suppose now would be a good time for an example. Here's one for first person:
I walked first down the beach, then up the mountain, then through the meadow, picking flowers as I went. They were for my grand-mama. To be sure my course was correct, I checked my map. Now, a little bit of a delay getting to a place doesn't bother me none, but Grand-mama has always been a stickler for punctuality.
That may have been a little backwoods, but that's okay. For a better example of first person, read The Swiss Family Robinson. For second person, keep reading this. For third person, try a couple of the stories accessible from the author's page. Whisker Tales and Harry Potter and the Magnificent Farce are both good examples.