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Telescopic v microscopic

So I've noticed in my writing I tend to have a microscopic focus, particularly when building up to a conflict. For example I just wrote a scene with my MC sharpening a sword prepping for a fight with some bad guys. The whole first paragraph of that scene focus on the schicking of the stone and the ticking of a clock while he's thinking about the possibility of his own death or madness. This, to me is a microscopic focus. And I really like this focus to pause and breathe for a moment before the plunge.

However I have hard time making a broad telescopic focus be as engaging. So what do you do to make telescoping passages engaging?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
That's awfully vague and I'm probably far from the mark, but I'll give this a shot.

In Goblins I have a big battle scene. Epic. Sprawling. I had to telescope out so the reader knows that the good guys get surrounded and that's why they are wiped out. Plus there are some great crowd scenes, in which the army of the good guys is pressed together so tightly they cannot raise their swords, and all are choked by dust and heat. So that's the telescope.

If the scene works, it will be because prior to that I used the microscope. I pick out individuals, some protagonists but also a couple of temporary characters just to give perspective. The notion is that the reader can care only about individuals. If I engage the reader there, then the high drama of the telescopic view adds to that.

Come to think of it, truly microscopic has the same challenge. You need the normal view--that's where we get involved with the characters. The microscope brings intimacy; the telescope gives perspective; but without the engagement of the normal view, it's just stuff.
 
That's awfully vague and I'm probably far from the mark, but I'll give this a shot.

In Goblins I have a big battle scene. Epic. Sprawling. I had to telescope out so the reader knows that the good guys get surrounded and that's why they are wiped out. Plus there are some great crowd scenes, in which the army of the good guys is pressed together so tightly they cannot raise their swords, and all are choked by dust and heat. So that's the telescope.

If the scene works, it will be because prior to that I used the microscope. I pick out individuals, some protagonists but also a couple of temporary characters just to give perspective. The notion is that the reader can care only about individuals. If I engage the reader there, then the high drama of the telescopic view adds to that.

Come to think of it, truly microscopic has the same challenge. You need the normal view--that's where we get involved with the characters. The microscope brings intimacy; the telescope gives perspective; but without the engagement of the normal view, it's just stuff.

Yes, you've got the gist of it. So, if I'm understanding, the epic sweep requires a focus on actual human emotions to contrxtualize the epic ness correct?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Well, don't look to me for actual guidance! But yeah, that's how it look from here. Left field, upper decks.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
See the forest, the tree or a single leaf? It' all a matter of how much of each you like to provide. The forest would be the reason for the battle and who wins. The tree would be the motivation, knowledge behavior and feelings of your character. The leaf would be the detail sights, sounds, scents and texture of your character's environment. I would say decide what you want the main focus of your text to be and then write accordingly. Upon editing check the relative amount of each. Also keep in mind the amount of each type of detail can change wit the story situation.
 
However I have hard time making a broad telescopic focus be as engaging. So what do you do to make telescoping passages engaging?

Are you writing intimate, limited third or omniscient or cinematic third?

In any of these approaches, you want to introduce tensions, questions for the reader, curiosity, dread, etc., when zooming out for the telescopic view, if you want to keep the reader engaged. But each of these narrative strategies will work a little differently.

For instance, with close limited third, the best telescopic overview always suggests that the POV characters themselves are aware of this larger context, even if you don't use direct thought and point-by-point character consideration of the context being described. Your character sharpening his sword is aware of the placement of the enemy's forces, the land, the weather, what's looming–i.e., whatever you include in the telescopic view. To some large extent, these aspects of the larger context need to inform his current actions and thoughts, his attitude about his own existence and the world at large, and provoke the question, for the reader, "What's he going to do? How is he going to handle what's coming?" and even, perhaps, "How's he going to change [when events unfold]?"
 

staiger95

Scribe
A couple other posters answered wonderfully in my opinion, so not very much to add, but...

The whole first paragraph of that scene focus on the schicking of the stone and the ticking of a clock while he's thinking about the possibility of his own death or madness.


I think it's important to note it is not the description of a sword and a whetstone that captures the reader, but more likely the thoughts of the character involved. In a broader viewpoint, it is still important to contextualize the scene in regards to human emotion.
 
When I read this post I immediately identified with your liking for zooming in on small details. But then when you moved to telescoping outward, I couldnt think of a single scene in my current WIP where I did that.

And of course. I write in first person typically. (My next project is different, but it's an exception.) So I guess it's possible to go an entire book without taking a much larger vantage point. A lot of my style is focused on small, specific details.

In the redraft of my WIP, Red Nights, I spent nearly an hour coming up with the opening line. I wanted a single detail to focus on, a single snapshot. That detail turned out to be the stark pale of a young man's throat just before the MC slits it. Just his pale skin standing out in a flash of lightning, about to be cleaved by her blade. I played with the exact words a lot but once I had the detail the opening line was mostly won, and with it the opening scene was half won.
 
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