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What's a filter?

Freya Yuki

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A lot hinges on what POV you are using. What POV are you using?

He turned to the side and saw- maybe that's what happened, but it's dull and vague. 'Turned and saw' doesn't really give much of an image.

If something catches his attention - that's what you should focus on. If he's sitting on his chair or whatever, cut straight to the event or commotion that caught his attention. If you are in 'his' POV we know he is seeing or hearing the commotion or whatever because if he hasn't heard it or noticed it you can't mention it at all.

POV is 3rd person limited. What if he's in the middle of fighting someone and that's when he notices something else? Is it fine to just mention right away what he noticed? Would readers assume he turned to the side and that's how he saw or noticed something else?

I guess I'm wondering about the best way to transition this. For scenes like what you mentioned, yeah, I just cut straight to what was happening and what he's seeing/noticing. But what about for situations when the character is occupied with something and then something else catches his attention?
 

bearilou

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Filtering is a huge issue I face when writing. I'm not aware I do it in the rush of my first draft. It's in the edits that I slam into them regularly.

One of the things I look for when editing are specific words that may indicate filtering. He saw, he felt, she heard, she smelled, she thought.

Those may still be needed for the scene/paragraph/sentence. The more I evaluate the sentence, it's easy to spot when it's filtering as opposed to being necessary in the interest of brevity and motion.

Like adverbs, you want to watch overuse but getting rid of all of them isn't advisable or you'll edit out the beauty and life of your prose.
 

Chris P

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POV is 3rd person limited. What if he's in the middle of fighting someone and that's when he notices something else? Is it fine to just mention right away what he noticed? Would readers assume he turned to the side and that's how he saw or noticed something else?

I guess I'm wondering about the best way to transition this. For scenes like what you mentioned, yeah, I just cut straight to what was happening and what he's seeing/noticing. But what about for situations when the character is occupied with something and then something else catches his attention?

I wonder if it depends on why what he noticed is important? If what he noticed is important because the tide of the battle turned but he doesn't do anything different in the moment, then him noticing isn't the important thing; don't filter. If what he noticed causes him to do something else, like turn and flee, then the fact that he noticed is important and the filtering is more appropriate. Not a hard and fast rule, but might help in some situations.
 

Freya Yuki

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I wonder if it depends on why what he noticed is important? If what he noticed is important because the tide of the battle turned but he doesn't do anything different in the moment, then him noticing isn't the important thing; don't filter. If what he noticed causes him to do something else, like turn and flee, then the fact that he noticed is important and the filtering is more appropriate. Not a hard and fast rule, but might help in some situations.

Thanks. What he notices is the arrival of a new character, the person he came to see. After the fight, he will get to talk to this person so I thought it would be good to have him notice/see this chara show up while he's fighting otherwise it might seem like the chara came out of nowhere at the end of the fight. Or would readers just assume this new chara arrived sometime while the MC was in the middle of a fight?

If he's in the middle of fighting someone, how likely is it that he'll notice something else? Fighting is a pretty concentrated activity.

caw

There was a bit of a pause in the fight, like they backed away from each other. The MC is trying to catch his breath and preparing to attack again. That's when he notices the arrival of this new chara. Is that believable enough?

Thanks.
 

Bufty

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I think you're worrying too much.

I don't know your story but if his second knows about the meeting, then while patching him up between rounds the second could simply say something like "Spotted Chinny. Front row left." or whatever. Issue here is - is the fight itself important enough to dwell on.

If it's not, then nothing wrong with them meeting for the first time after the fight.
 
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Outertrial

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I think the thing with filtering is if you want the reader to be aware of the character being aware of something, or you just want them to be aware of it themselves. People tend to be a bit more gripped by things they themselves are experiencing, rather than what's happening to other people.
 

Bufty

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O. :Hug2:

If it's Third Person Limited POV, the reader will always be aware it's 'something' the character is aware of because if the character isn't aware of it then it cannot be mentioned at all, filtered or not.

You are, I think, trying to make the point that showing is usually better than telling because it gives the reader a greater sense of involvement.

I think the thing with filtering is if you want the reader to be aware of the character being aware of something, or you just want them to be aware of it themselves. People tend to be a bit more gripped by things they themselves are experiencing, rather than what's happening to other people.
 
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pamrobi

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Great article and discussion, thanks for posting. I thought I was aware of this issue, but the discussion of POV character vs. narrator clicked something into place for me.