Psychic Distance | How to Control Point of View

Psychic distance is one of the most useful concepts to help understand and control your point of view. Figured it was worth a chat!

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[whakabuti]

For my future reference :)
0:56 - What is psychic distance?
2:20 - Examples of a range of distances
4:20 - You don't always need to have the closest distance
6:00 - Mistakes that will distance your narrative (1)
7:49 - Mistakes that will distance your narrative - Filters (2)
8:38 - Head hopping and leaky information
9:45 - Looking at the character from an external view point
10:22 - Voice
11:06 - Direct Thoughts
12:52 - Witholding thoughts, emotions
13:57 - First Person

[Sabrina-ylbg]

You always come up with the most useful and informative writing advice. I feel like when I'm looking for new advice it's just the same things hashed over and over again. I always learn something new from you. Glad to be a subscriber.

[annajane]

Awesome video; I am bookmarking it for use in a future class.

One aspect of psychic distance that you didn't talk about: distance created by time.

For instance, Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a story told in the first person by an older version of the character Scout, who is reminiscing about events that took place in her childhood. It's still pretty darn close, as the narrator and the character are technically the same person, but distance is created through the benefit of hindsight, and the storytelling will occasionally make use of information that the young Scout would not have (such as Bob Ewell being fired from a public works project, and that this was a unique circumstance for the 1930s).

This is different from a book like Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak, " where we experience events in the present tense as the narrator experiences them. The novel is written in a stream of consciousness fashion that is meant to mimic the thought process of a traumatized teenager. It is extremely close (even uncomfortably so, given the book's subject matter) and creates no distance.

Both books are written in the first person, but the element of time makes a big difference in the psychic distance of each story.

[vanessaglau]

I feel like Reedsy is writing 101 while this channel is the masterclass. Thank you for another great vid! I knew about different POV options & how they're generally used, just never thought of them as points on a spectrum of psychic distance & never paid attention to the viewpoint mistakes or distance I might accidentally create within a scene. The whole concept opens up a lot of possibilities I never considered before!

[anushamurali]

I'm 12, and I'm writing a fiction novel. I kinda started it when I was nine, before I knew all this. I'm now watching these videos and filtering my story- and I'm sure it's already exponentially better than the first draft. Great Videos, and useful information. Thanks, Shaelin!

[cavalrycome]

Third person objective might be unusual in novels but if you want to write a screenplay, it's obligatory, and there is an art to revealing the emotional life of characters without direct access to their thoughts. You can show what information they attend to, which information stops them in their tracks, etc. in a way that exposes their thought processes.

But you have to do that in a novel too with every other character aside from the protagonist when writing in the first person or when writing the kind of third person where the narrator only has access to the thoughts of the protagonist. In either of these cases, the emotional life of every other character aside from the protagonist has to be conveyed with only the tools that would be available in the third person objective, so I wouldn't downplay it as unusual. There's an important set of skills there.

[mrkshply]

This video allows me to explain something that I find really annoying from many others. It's when they are essentially writing in first person but they are using the third person structure. If you just want to write in first person then just write in first person

[MacduffProd]

even though i believe i was aware of it instinctively, i've never heard about this concept in theory before and it's genuinely fascinating to learn more about. being conscious of it means there is a way to avoid it that is more effective than just staring at the page and going, _what the hell am i doing_ bc you can't pinpoint what exactly is so jarring to you.

[haileyn]

Can you make a video about character arcs and / or one about what happens in the writing process after finishing the first draft?

[kristel]

I love this video, it's comprehensive and accessible at the same time. I would like to note that it's a viable technique to increase your psychic distance immediately after a traumatic or emotionally fraught scene, as a way to convey that your character is either disoriented or emotionally drained after experiencing something monumental. For example, the dominant refrain in the Hamilton musical after a traumatic event is, "It's quiet uptown." Because, you know, what else is there to say?

[laszlob]

I always watch till the end when the video begins "this is the most useful thing I have learned in my whole writing degree". I feel good about saving money and time.

[wilona]

13:34 feel the rain on your skin no one else can feel it for you only you can let it in no one else, no one else-
ok im done but i had to

[Hxarh]

"God being the narrator, because as writers we all want power trips, and wanna be deities of our own little worlds."

Golly gosh that got dark! 😅

[hawkins]

Can you do a video on the difference between "head hopping" and 3rd Person Omniscient POV?

[milesisediting]

I am in love with your videos! Thank you so so much you helped me a lot! Please keep going!

[TomorrowWeLive]

I always default to close 3rd or more rarely close 1st. It never even crossed my mind to do omniscient, which had been drummed into my head as outdated and bad, etc. But recently I've been reading some works by Mary Renault and other older writers and they actually sort of zoom in and out with the psychic distance and even though they follow one main character they have these brief asides where they basically hop into the head of another character/let the reader know what's going on for them, and it honestly works really well, like it really enriches the story. So I'm kind conflicted because of all the writing advice saying head hopping is bad bad bad

[bimblinghill]

I'm half way through reading 'A Place Of Greater Safety' by Hilary Mantel. Having watched your video earlier it's made me realise how she plays with the reader by switching between different viewpoints including 3rd limited, 3rd omniscient & 1st in different chapters. A lesser writer wouldn't pull it off, but together with her sparse and punchy prose it makes for a powerful reading experience.

[belladonut]

I just found you and all I got to say is wow! Very useful and insiteful information here! Thank you thank you thank YOU!

[galaxylucia]

This is brilliant!! Love your channel. Thanks Shaelin.

[messinalyle]

The YA novel No Kidding by Bruce Brooks was written completely in third person objective. The reader never hears a character's thoughts. We are left to surmise their thoughts and feelings based on what they do and say. For example, there's a scene that says "Ollie begins to jiggle a leg, " which suggests that he's nervous, and as the story progresses toward the end we realize that he was nervous because he wasn't being entirely truthful with his brother.

I'm not even sure if the novel is still in print.