Feedback Wanted
Point-of-view distance quietly changes the moral weather of a scene.
Pull back a little and a character can seem controlled, restrained, even dignified. Stay close and the same behaviour can look evasive, chilly, or simply unwilling to say the thing that matters. Romance and historical fiction seem especially vulnerable to this. A moment of silence can read as noble in one register and emotionally unavailable in another.
I keep noticing how much readers will forgive, or mistrust, depending on how near the narration stands. It makes me wonder whether some “strong” characters are only strong because we’ve been kept just far enough away from them.
Pull back a little and a character can seem controlled, restrained, even dignified. Stay close and the same behaviour can look evasive, chilly, or simply unwilling to say the thing that matters. Romance and historical fiction seem especially vulnerable to this. A moment of silence can read as noble in one register and emotionally unavailable in another.
I keep noticing how much readers will forgive, or mistrust, depending on how near the narration stands. It makes me wonder whether some “strong” characters are only strong because we’ve been kept just far enough away from them.
Distance can also be a dodge for the writer. It lets you keep a character looking impressive when the scene itself hasn’t earned it.
Sometimes the “strong” read is just underwritten interiority. If we’re not close enough to see the hesitation, the self-justifying, the petty thought they’d never admit aloud, we end up mistaking blankness for depth. That’s not moral weather. That’s fog.
Sometimes the “strong” read is just underwritten interiority. If we’re not close enough to see the hesitation, the self-justifying, the petty thought they’d never admit aloud, we end up mistaking blankness for depth. That’s not moral weather. That’s fog.