"Filtering" is when the writer forces us to "look at rather than through" the point-of-view character's eyes. So says Janet Burroway, author of eight novels and several books on creative writing, one of which is the most widely used text on the craft of writing fiction in the entire country.
Filtering can inadvertently hold the reader at a distance, especially when working in a close 1st or 3rd-person point-of-view, and keeps the reader from sinking comfortably into the fictional dream. One moment the reader is hunched over the POV character's shoulder, observing the world as if he is that character; seeing only what the character sees. But stumble across a "filtered observation" and suddenly the reader finds himself looking at the character instead of with the character -- watching the character as the character watches something else.
Filtering can inadvertently hold the reader at a distance, especially when working in a close 1st or 3rd-person point-of-view, and keeps the reader from sinking comfortably into the fictional dream. One moment the reader is hunched over the POV character's shoulder, observing the world as if he is that character; seeing only what the character sees. But stumble across a "filtered observation" and suddenly the reader finds himself looking at the character instead of with the character -- watching the character as the character watches something else.
In his book, The Art of Fiction, John Gardner refers to this as "the failure to run straight at an image; that is, the needless filtering of the image through some observing consciousness. The amateur writes: 'Turning, she noticed two snakes fighting in among the rocks.' Compare: 'She turned. In among the rocks, two snakes were fighting.' Generally speaking--though no laws are absolute in fiction--vividness urges that almost every occurrence of such phrases as "she noticed" and "she saw" be suppressed in favor of direct presentation of the thing seen."
The first time I read that paragraph by John Gardner I was totally confused. But luckily there was Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft, to help clear up the confusion:
As Gardner says, no laws are absolute in fiction, but you may be surprised how much tighter, more in-the-moment, and vivid your writing becomes when you remove the filters. Give the exercise below a shot and see if removing the filters doesn't improve the vividness and pace of your work-in-progress.
~
Janet Burroway's classic text, Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft is available online at IndieBound and Amazon.
The Art of Fiction by John Gardner is available here.
Janet Burroway's classic text, Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft is available online at IndieBound and Amazon.
The Art of Fiction by John Gardner is available here.
Great points here. Another reminder as I comb through my Hada chapters. I'm glad you're doing this blog!
ReplyDeleteHey there Leslie. I can't thank you enough for this post. For whatever reason, I seem to have some major issues with filtering.
ReplyDeleteI was referred to this post by a friend from Scribophile. I wrote a blog post about it the other day too, I think it sent a few people your way.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks a ton!
Kirkus, I'm so glad you've been able to put Gardner's filtering test to good use. I've gotten so much useful information out of Janet Burroway's book -- little tidbits like that section on filtering that I haven't found anywhere else-- which is why it's become my "Bible" for writing fiction. Thanks for linking back to my post. Your blog looks really great. So many good writing links! I'll be visiting often.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your novel!
Leslie
I actually had Janet as a teacher years ago. Thanks for reminding me of her good advice. I've noticed myself adding "filters," and I've been working hard to "filter" them out, but the list is REALLY helpful. Just plug it in the "FIND" function and clean up your act!
ReplyDeleteLucky you, Joanna! I wish I had the opportunity to take a class from Janet Burroway. Great idea to use the "find" function to catch those dreaded filters. I think I'll apply it right now to my short story in progress.
ReplyDeleteJust been pointed to this blog in a comment on my own post on Gardner's Psychic Distance, and it's a lovely, clear explanation of a very common problem - thank you! I'll be passing it on to my students and colleagues who want to tackle this issue.
ReplyDeleteI do worry a little, though, that Burroway's and Gardner's certainty that it's almost "an absolute law" makes some students ignore the possibility that there are times when the slightly greater distance - the sense of the action being observed in a single stream, rather than as separate units of directly presented stuff - may be exactly what's needed.
To go back to Gardner, it's about where on the spectrum of psychic distance you want the narrative to be, at this moment - and of course psychic distance implicates showing-and-telling, voice, narrative mode... I'd suggest that the ideal (as far as I'm concerned as both writer and teacher of writing) is for a writer to be skilled and flexible enough to be able to write such a paragraph as Mrs Blair at any distance from the furthest-out, fable-like voice, to the furthest in stream-of-consciousness. I get my students to do that with a paragraph of their own, and boy does it make their heads hurt, but they learn vast amounts, and routinely say it was the best bit of the course!
Emma, so glad you stopped by and so happy to discover your blog, “This Itch of Writing”! Your blog is a treasure trove of good material... I’ll be back often!
ReplyDeleteI love the exercise in psychic distance you give your students. Such a great way to learn all those concepts you mention (voice, POV, showing vs telling, etc). I definitely don’t want to give the impression that the “No Filtering” guideline is an absolute rule that must be followed in every instance. As Gardner says, there are no absolute rules in fiction. For beginning writers like me, it’s easy to fall into the trap of following hard and fast “rules”. It’s a good exercise just to force myself to break away!
Psychic distance is one of those great tools that writers consciously employ to zoom in and out to reach a desired effect in their story-telling, but as far as I can tell, “filtering” refers to the times when writers writing from a tight third-person POV (or even a tight first-person) unintentionally jump outside that POV (or slightly askew) to look at their character (or narrator) instead of through that character’s eyes. Which, in general, seems like something a writer ought to avoid whenever possible. Unless, like you say, the effect is intentional. I think a lot of us don’t even realize we’re doing it, and filters should probably only be applied when we know we’re applying them and why.
Great discussion! Thank you!
Leslie
Leslie - so glad you've found This Itch useful. It'll be lovely to see you over there.
ReplyDeleteI think your analysis of "filtering" is spot on - it's an absentminded mis-judgement of the handling of psychic distance and point of view, as much as anything. I think you're right that often we don't realise we're doing it.
Maybe sometimes it's part of what happens in first draft, as we're thinking-out-on-paper what we're trying to say. It's as if we're Telling ourselves what we're imagining, and of course we're imagining our characters from outside, as well as inside, their heads... and so it gets down on the page to be a bit too Tell-y for everyone else.
Actually - hope this is okay - I blogged about a range of things like that, which are very natural results of the drafting process, and just need fishing out later:
http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2010/12/the-common-scaffold.html
Maybe this tendence to filter is sometimes one of those.
Emma, you've nailed it. And you worded it so beautifully! I hope people who read this post on filtering will read your comment as well. Thanks for your sharing your thoughts on this. Now I'll buzz on over to "This Itch" and check out your latest post...
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. This has helped me a great deal already.
ReplyDeleteDuly noted. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Leslie. I used to struggle a lot with filtering, but I never had a good name for it until recently. I still filter a lot in first drafts, but have learned to 'filter them out' (lol) while editing.
ReplyDeleteI linked to your page as a resource for my own blog post on filtering, I hope you don't mind. My name is linked to it if you're interested/ want to make sure I credited you properly.