A lot to digest here. I will need to re-read this from time to time when I reach a relevant passage in my MS. I have looked at dozens, maybe over 200, writing advice videos on RUclips. Most of them regurgitate the same old stuff, but I have not seen this topic discussed before. I would welcome any further videos you create delving deeper into this topic. Visual, rather than spoken examples, are always helpful, much as I appreciate your manly baritone.
For a second I thought you said "and chekhov all of my other writing advice related videos" at the end and I thought that your jokes were hitting a whole new level of complexity. Great video, hi cat!
Sad that RUclips unsubscribed me from your channel. I’m more than thankful that I didn’t lose you. Thank you for all you do! This video was a great help.
'Well-formatted hate mail" 🤣 "structural integrity of a wood beam" - see, you really do want to have a woodworking channel. I lean to free indirect... but I'm not consistent. And I have a hard time keeping the tense of the thoughts correct. My critique partner generally insists that present tense is wrong (my narrative overall is third person past tense) but especially when going Direct, it feels like it must be present tense. Sometimes I think it would be *so much easier* to just write "cinematically," only writing what a camera in the room would see and hear… However, I overall agree with the agents on the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You," who heavily emphasize the necessity for fiction to have lots of "interiority" as that is the primary distinction of a novel, the advantage it has over movies and television and other forms of fiction. I think I overdo the character thoughts. But I was surprised to hear you hardly do any! I can't imagine writing that way.
I think your videos are helpful for writers and I think your urual ending humor helps solidify your topic in our heads. However, this time was hard to pay attention throughout and could have benefitted from much more on screen printing, perhaps directly comparing the three types of character thinking. That's what I think.
Great topic, but I'm too medicated right now to process all that direct speech etc. stuff that i might have learned once, and promptly forgot (English and writing classes were decades ago). Bookmarked and will revisit.
Just like every writing tool/technique, you just need to find a way that works for yourself. That's why reading is so important if you want to write, we can learn a lot from people who did it before us.
Would you expand on character thoughts with an unreliable narrator? That strikes me as a particularly tricky situation. For example, imagine a strongly-voiced unreliable narrator who wants to incriminate the protagonist. Writing in, say, a close third person perspective, how should you best convey the character's thoughts filtered through the unreliable narrator versus the narrator's own thoughts? I've been considering using unitalicized free direct speech for the protagonist and italicized free direct speech for the narrator.
A lot to digest here. I will need to re-read this from time to time when I reach a relevant passage in my MS. I have looked at dozens, maybe over 200, writing advice videos on RUclips. Most of them regurgitate the same old stuff, but I have not seen this topic discussed before. I would welcome any further videos you create delving deeper into this topic. Visual, rather than spoken examples, are always helpful, much as I appreciate your manly baritone.
For a second I thought you said "and chekhov all of my other writing advice related videos" at the end and I thought that your jokes were hitting a whole new level of complexity.
Great video, hi cat!
Sad that RUclips unsubscribed me from your channel. I’m more than thankful that I didn’t lose you.
Thank you for all you do! This video was a great help.
Nah man, I was thinking about writing explosions. But I'll subscribe.
I think you should do that deeper dive on thoughts.
'Well-formatted hate mail" 🤣
"structural integrity of a wood beam" - see, you really do want to have a woodworking channel.
I lean to free indirect... but I'm not consistent. And I have a hard time keeping the tense of the thoughts correct. My critique partner generally insists that present tense is wrong (my narrative overall is third person past tense) but especially when going Direct, it feels like it must be present tense.
Sometimes I think it would be *so much easier* to just write "cinematically," only writing what a camera in the room would see and hear…
However, I overall agree with the agents on the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You," who heavily emphasize the necessity for fiction to have lots of "interiority" as that is the primary distinction of a novel, the advantage it has over movies and television and other forms of fiction.
I think I overdo the character thoughts. But I was surprised to hear you hardly do any! I can't imagine writing that way.
good topic
Golly-gee, gosh darn it, this is my fifth video of yours that I've watched. I guess I'll subscribe.
I am writing a novelette currently and thought about characters’ thoughts and how to convey them just a couple of days ago. Great timing for me.
What is that SNL skit called again, the one with Christopher Walken? More Cat Butt!
Well, crap! Now that's all I'll hear when I see that again. Way to go, momo!!
*Jeepers, this is good,* I thought as I tapped my android's screen to tell him so.
I think your videos are helpful for writers and I think your urual ending humor helps solidify your topic in our heads.
However, this time was hard to pay attention throughout and could have benefitted from much more on screen printing,
perhaps directly comparing the three types of character thinking. That's what I think.
Great topic, but I'm too medicated right now to process all that direct speech etc. stuff that i might have learned once, and promptly forgot (English and writing classes were decades ago). Bookmarked and will revisit.
Just like every writing tool/technique, you just need to find a way that works for yourself. That's why reading is so important if you want to write, we can learn a lot from people who did it before us.
Oh golly. I'm not subscribed to Carl's channel yet. Gee whiz. I better do that right now
Would you expand on character thoughts with an unreliable narrator? That strikes me as a particularly tricky situation. For example, imagine a strongly-voiced unreliable narrator who wants to incriminate the protagonist. Writing in, say, a close third person perspective, how should you best convey the character's thoughts filtered through the unreliable narrator versus the narrator's own thoughts? I've been considering using unitalicized free direct speech for the protagonist and italicized free direct speech for the narrator.
character thoughts are usually just boring. should be limited. action, dialogue, description is more important
Still confused about First Person
Oh golly. I just realized I wasn't subscribed. All fixed