Received some great feedback last night

[BWFoster78]

An experienced writing coach came to our writing group last night. His main advice? Filter what's happening through your characters.

I've heard this before, but his harping on it and pointing out how none of us were really doing it effectively really brought it home.

I've heard of filtering in writing in two different contexts: one good and one bad. The bad one is using phrases like: He saw the red horse galloping down the road. "He saw" is "bad" for two reasons - a) it's unnecessary and b) it's less active than "The red horse galloped down the road." Would you rather read about a guy seeing something or about the horse doing something?

The good context is something like: The red horse galloped down the road. It reminded POV of growing up on his uncle's farm. He sighed.

This admittedly dreadful example gives emotional context to what's happening and develops character.

It's a great technique, one that I do not use enough or particularly effectively. Any tips or comments on how to develop using this more would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Penpilot]

This may be a little Mary Sueish but I just pretend I'm the character. If I understand them well enough, it's like putting on a jacket.

 

[Steerpike]

I already do this in most cases, unless I'm intentionally pursuing a different style. It is effective if you are in a tight point of view. When you go back to edit, it is easy to identify all of the places that don't match up to this style and change them. The threshold question is whether this is the style you want or not, but if you do, I don't think it is difficult to edit your work accordingly.

 

[Devor]

Mostly pretty solid advice. I tend to think it can cause heavy action scenes to become a little murky (too much going on for one person to process), but then again, I think most authors struggle with those scenes, so maybe that's a good thing. There are also a few points where I feel a heavy POV can block the reader from experiencing the emotion of the scene. Those are few and far between, but that can be a big deal when it happens.

 

[BWFoster78]

I already do this in most cases, unless I'm intentionally pursuing a different style. It is effective if you are in a tight point of view. When you go back to edit, it is easy to identify all of the places that don't match up to this style and change them. The threshold question is whether this is the style you want or not, but if you do, I don't think it is difficult to edit your work accordingly.

I think I like using it sparingly for highly emotional moments or to highlight a change. I don't think I want every scene to incorporate it, but I think I should use it more than I do.

Do you think the occassional use considering a fairly distant POV can work?

 

[BWFoster78]

Mostly pretty solid advice. I tend to think it can cause heavy action scenes to become a little murky (too much going on for one person to process), but then again, I think most authors struggle with those scenes, so maybe that's a good thing. There are also a few points where I feel a heavy POV can block the reader from experiencing the emotion of the scene. Those are few and far between, but that can be a big deal when it happens.

Yeah. I don't think I'd use it during action.

 

[Steerpike]

I think I like using it sparingly for highly emotional moments or to highlight a change. I don't think I want every scene to incorporate it, but I think I should use it more than I do.

Do you think the occassional use considering a fairly distant POV can work?

Yes, definitely. You can write an entire story using a distant, omniscient point of view and make it work. It sounds like you're striking a balance. I've heard people say to pick one (close or distant) and stick with it, but I've never had a problem as a reader with a writer who moves between the two.

 

[BWFoster78]

It sounds like you're striking a balance.

Probably the only thing for it is to try it and see if it works.

I will say that, the few places I have incorporated it, I think I like it so far.

 

[Penpilot]

I think I like using it sparingly for highly emotional moments or to highlight a change. I don't think I want every scene to incorporate it, but I think I should use it more than I do.

Do you think the occassional use considering a fairly distant POV can work?

Using a movie analogy, it's perfectly valid to zoom in and out as you please within the constraints of your POV. I'm pretty sure if you examine some published books, you'll find a lot of them do this.

 

[BWFoster78]

Using a movie analogy, it's perfectly valid to zoom in and out as you please within the constraints of your POV. I'm pretty sure if you examine some published books, you'll find a lot of them do this.

I think that the issue is consistency. If I stay distant the vast majority of the time, I run the risk of it sounding off when I move in closer.

 

[BWFoster78]

I think you should take a look at psychic distance. Might help you out with some of these issues.

A blog article to get you started ... This Itch of Writing: Psychic Distance: what it is and how to use it

(Yes, I know I keep linking to this blog, but I love it... she has some great tips and advice).

I checked out the post. I found it long on the what (which wasn't really a question for me) and short on the how (which is more to the point).

I get the concepts. I just need to play with what actually works.

 

[Butterfly]

Sorry BW... you beat me to posting... I put it in the other thread now. Thought it was more relevant there...

 

[wordwalker]

My own is Viewpoint

 

[BWFoster78]

My own is Viewpoint

Good read. I'd be interested in seeing a similar piece about the impact of filtering scene details through the character.