Click goes the brain...

[khiemtran]

I think I need a rule that says I'm only allowed to write a scene from an internal viewpoint in very special circumstances.

I write so much better when I don't describe things through the protagonist's eyes, or from the protagnist's memory. It might be just that it forces me to show rather than tell when it comes to the protagonist's motivations and dilemmas, in the same way that writing in present tense forces me to keep the pace up. It also forces me to get the characters moving - a deliberating character is pretty boring from the outside otherwise - and it also solves the problem of describing everything from the pov of the naïve protagonists I tend to like.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

I am struggling with combining the two - write in tight third or first, but *not* through internalisation. It's the art of pulling back the camera a little and doing what Pat Wrede described as 'building the maze' - providing the things and events the character reacts to so the reader can follow.

I like the image of a film of someone working things through in their head and not doing anything, so maybe that'll be a good test for me: what would this look like as a film? If the answer is 'boring' then I'll need to rework it.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

One thing I've noticed is that great scenes tend to look like great scenes even from afar.

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

What about multiple PoV characters? Would that help? That way you also get to describe the *protagonist* from the outside -- and do all that stuff about showing rather than telling the motivations etc.

(Ok, not so easy in short stories -- I don't know what you're writing at the moment.)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, I guess that's what I'm working towards. I'm trying to concentrate on showing characters only from other povs, although I suppose if a character was sufficiently deluded or deceptive that their pov was unreliable, that might also qualify. I still need to avoid having multiple pov characters who are all too focused on their own internal threats and goals.