David Shultz – ProWritingAid
Note: Defining Genre
- SciFi vs Fantasy
- Speculative Fiction
- Hard vs Sofi SciFi
- Novum (Darko Suvin)
- Worldbuilding
- Rules
Description
A Common Question in Writing Forums
Q: How do you describe “x”:
- A werewolf
- An alien spaceship
- A futuristic battlefield
- A picture I just posted
Don’t “Describe”
Question: How do I describe a werewolf…
Answer: I don’t know, until you identify your viewpoint character
- A hapless prey running from the creature
- A seasoned werewolf hunter commissioned to protect the town
- A conspecific searching for a mate
Key: Writers don’t ‘describe’ – they filter details through a narrative lens
What is the “Narrative Lens”?
● Sensory Experiences – Imagery – Environment Details – Thoughts – Actions – Dialogue …
● Are Filtered Through a Narrative Lens (Think a Movie/Sound Camera)
● Becoming the Text on the Page
Components of a Narrative Lens
The narrative lens comprises all the high-level, structural considerations that can be brought o bear on word choice
Derived from the POV character
- Habits of thought, mood, education levels, skills, etc
Derived from other structural considerations
- Genre, tone, theme, or motive, foreshadowing
Relationship to Show/Don’t Tell
- What is “told”: explicit, referential content
- What is “shown”: content that is conveyed through inference, implication, implication, subtext, connotation, and other
non-referential means
Example: An Encounter with a Werewolf
Its hunched form lumbered across the treeline, snapping through dry bush. Now and then it stopped, thrusting its snout towards the moon to sniff furiously, searching for a scent. It was big. Not the biggest Kaja had ever seen, but big enough to quicken her heart, make her own breathing seem louder, to make her second guess the wind. She breathed in. The creature’s musk was there, like a wet dog. As long as she could smell it, it couldn’t smell her.
- Is this from the POV of: prey or hunter?
- How scared is the POV character?
- How experienced is the POV character in these encounters?
- Is the POV character w werewolf?
Exercise:
In third-person, limited (focalized), using one to four sentences, describe:
First Exercise: A werewolf, from the perspective of:
- Hapless prey
- A werewolf hunter
- A conspecific with romantic inclinations
Second Exercise: A spaceship, from the perspective of:
- A new captain’s first visit
- An enemy spy on board
- A biologist, first time in space
Goal: without alluding to POV, convey the POV through the choice of descriptive phrases
Success Criteria: A reader can identify the POV just by the way things are described
Narrative Lens: Some Applications in SF
Scenarios/Writing Problems:
- Too many details, where to start ® psychological salience
- Handling Exposition
Identifying expository lumps/clunky exposition
Gracefully introducing exposition ® thought triggers
Abeyance and implication
- Skin tone and race
Too Much Detail. Where to Start?
Problem: A highly detailed picture in your imagination, or richly developed world-building in your notebook … but where to start? What details to include, and in what order?
- Comprehensive or truncated?
- Big to small?
- Most interesting or novel first?
Solution: Narrative lens & psychological salience
Psychological Salience
We choose descriptive elements based on what your POV character notices or thinks about
Example: Your character steps into an outhouse. Do we first mention:
- The approximate dimensions
- The color and type of wood
- Sun shining through cracks
- The smell
Exposition
Critical to speculative fiction: introducing new words, new technologies, new worlds
Difficulties:
- Clunky, forces exposition will pull the reader out of the story
- Inadequate exposition will lead to confusion
- Excessive exposition can lead to boredom
How to handle exposition?
Exposition
“(…) you have to keep it in balance (…) information must be trickled into a story, always just enough to know what is happening.” Orson Scott Card “Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy”
Example: Clunky Exposition: not a question of “how much”
“Gerald aimed his Peacekeeper 2000 plasma rifle at the intruder. The PK2K was equipped with biometric fingerprinting to ensure the trusty weapon did not fall into enemy hands.”
Example: Clunky Exposition: not a question of “how much”
“Gerald aimed his Peacekeeper 2000 plasma rifle at the intruder. Just two feet away, there was a risk he’d try to grab it, but the PK2K was equipped with biometric fingerprinting to ensure the trusty weapon did not fall into enemy hands.”
Example: Handling Exposition: implication
“Gerald aimed his Peacekeeper 2000 plasma rifle at the intruder. Just two feet away, there was a risk he’d try to grab it, but the PK2K was equipped with biometric fingerprinting to ensure the trusty weapon did not fall into enemy hands.”
Example: Handling Exposition: abeyance
“Gerald aimed his Peacekeeper 2000 plasma rifle at the intruder. Just two feet away, there was a risk he’d try to grab it, but the PK2K was equipped with a soul core.
Example: Effective Handling of Exposition
“The Martian” by Andy Weir
Tons of science, math and engineering
Does not feel like clunky exposition at all. Why?
Narrative Lens Application: Sin Tone (and Rage Generally)
- Important
- Fraught
- Mishandling the craft can cause social harm
Example: Describing Skin Tone (The Right Way)
“Zone One” by Colson Whitehead
Use the narrative lens
- If it is written in your description, you are saying this is how your character views the world
- Be deliberate about the POV you are crafting through your choice of descriptives
Overview
The Narrative Lens comprises all the high-level, structural considerations
that determine word choice
The Narrative Lens is primarily built from the POV character (disposition,
profession, mood, vocabulary, etc.) and secondarily from the broader
narrative aims (genre, tone, theme, motif, foreshadowing, etc.)
We looked at specific applications in:
- Psychological salience
- Exposition: thought triggers, abeyance, implication
- Handling skin tone
Questions?