Choosing Point of View: Conscious or Unconscious?

Have you ever sat back and examined the point of view you gravitate towards in your writing? Or do you fly all over the map and just pick the one that suits your fancy?

I was reading this great book last night (called Making Shapely Fiction, if you're interested) and came to the section on point of view. Of course I know all about point of view from high school English classes and from being an English major in college. But I'm not sure if I ever took that knowledge and applied it to myself, and analyzed what I do in my own work.

I've attempted to write three books now, with the third one finally working (hurrah!). Two were non-fiction (memoir) and one was fiction. Of course with the memoirs I wrote in first person. I think there's something strange going on in your psyche if you try to write a memoir from a different viewpoint!

But when I was working on my fiction novel I noticed I wrote it in third person. It wasn't anything I consciously decided on, it's just how the writing came out. And I never thought to look at it a different way.

So then that got me thinking about my other attempt at fiction, a short story called "The Painting." And I noticed that I'd written it in first person, again without making any conscious decision to do so. Which had me thinking about why.

And what I came up with was that this short story was very autobiographical in nature. So I suppose I chose to embody the character myself because I could do so very easily. My fiction novel was an attempt at making a story out of nothing and trying to not base it on my life. Whole different ball game.

So that left me wondering about point of view and how I'm making my choices - whether or not it's done consciously or unconsciously, and whether or not my choices are worth a fresh look.

As I move forward in my writing work, I've decided to step out of my comfort zone and try to embody a character that I've made up. And just see where that takes me. Or maybe instead I will try to separate myself more from a character who is based on my life, and see if that provides a new (and totally awesome) perspective.

The point is, I think I need to more objectively decide point of view instead of allowing my fear-of-failure psyche to choose it for me. Because maybe it would help me find the story I really want to tell.

Do you experiment with points of view? Have you found any patterns you can identify? What works for you?