filtering!!! wat u think?

[ManwX]

Because we don't want to go off showing first person POV, Yet.

The world isn't divided by black and white, and making point of view isn't limited with just limited first person and omniscient third person.

Sometimes author may want to use some other point of view to show their character in different light, showing different aspects, or just highlighting things that may be hidden from readers.

But there are things that were hard to show or even tell from just first person POV. And author may not want to use Third person omniscient to avoid showing too much, or even avoiding spoiler.

Because of that reason, the solution is to show limited perspective to show what author wants to show/tell/highlights, but there's no repercussions of showing too much to reader because of the perspective limitations.

Why not use another character pov to see what happens to the main mc? Im guilty of doing that lol

I personally sometimes filter and sometimes don't.

Though honestly, I have to question why would filtering be bad writing. When a book is written without filtering at all, it feels inroganic, like an outside observer was blandly describing it. I feel filtering allows for much better expression and subjective narration, which adds dynamism and helps with conveying emotions.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure what you're calling writing without filtering is almost the same as behavioral storytelling (I'm not sure if that's the proper name), which is basically describing behavior of characters without revealing their inner thoughts. It can be good in some cases, but I would say it's just two different styles, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

I disagree. I think that depends on taste. Rather than be limited on a pov i want to feel like im watching a show. So imo its a matter of taste

 

[MajorKerina]

You literally don't even know how to use non filtering though.

What do you mean? As far as I’ve read, filtering signifies concentrating on character perception language. “X felt”. “They saw X.” Compared with alternative phrasings focused on information. “X twisted up his face in pain.” “A bright light lit up the sky.”

 

[Representing_Tromba]

 

[LadyIsak]

I think filtering is a useful tool — sometimes you do want to establish a character is uncertain about what exactly it is they’re experiencing, and sometimes you can’t avoid using “think” verbs … but it’s a tool that gets pretty grating when applied indiscriminately.

I certainly don’t practise what Chuck Palanhuik recommends in this essay with the kind of discipline he expects, but I’ve found it a very useful editing rubric — cutting out the ~shortcut verbs, unpacking the specifics of how characters feel, what they do about it, how they express feelings, even to themselves.

After all, even very introspective people often don’t quite understand what (or why) we feel and think.

That said, I don’t think occasional filtering is a stylistic error; the militant squeamishness about filtering, passive voice, etc. that some writers exhibit is almost funny sometimes. There’s more to good prose than following style guides!

 

[tiaf]

I use filtering for moments that should have the world as the focus. How the character perceives the scenery reads not as forced as when I blandly describe it as it is. It's also a good pace changer.

Writing without filtering is seriously boring.