Re: two questions [crit]

Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <seawasp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina Hall wrote:
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <seawasp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina Hall wrote:

[first person rather than tight third]
And somehow I doubt that many people/characters would reveal
their innermost feelings to some anonymous listener/reader.
(Well, not those worth reading about. The others you find in
talk shows. <g>)

Exactly. Thus a couple of side comments made by Jason about
what he's NOT telling you.

Needs a perceptive reader then, if they want to pick up on the
paradigm shifting.

Sort of. You can also -- as I do -- assume that (since Jason's
very dismissive of the supernatural at the beginning) any major
revelation must be having some sort of effect on his worldview.

That's a bit out-of-story for me. To assume something I'd need at
least a hint of it. But I'm not complaining, so what I'd need is
irrelevant.

[Nero Wolfe]
I know about the TV series, and have IIRC been told that there
are books. I just haven't seen any books, so I could only guess
about the perspective in them.

Naturally. I haven't seen the most recent TV series so I don't
know how they did it; sometimes the TV series approach would be
to have a narrator explaining some things, and then you could
still have the "viewpoint" be Archie.

True. I kind of like that approach.

<snip>

Didn't like the Watson viewpoint, but they're good enough as
audiobooks, so I gess that's another name for the library. :)

I believe that one of the reasons for such a viewpoint is to not
have to try to depict the INTERNAL workings of someone who's
supposed to be so smart that, well, he's about twice as smart as
the author writing him,

Oh, we're back to writing. :)

I actually have that problem, too. Characters who notice
_everything_ around them, automatically file it away and put the
data in the right order, able to predict everything and everyone
around them (with sufficient data), if need be acting to bring about
certain behaviour (working with what they know people are like
rather than manipulating them, but nonetheless lying as they're
never showing their real personality - that would not be understood
by the normal people around them... A problem once that's out in the
open, too, for someone close to one of them wanting the old friend
back.).

So, how do you do such a viewpoint?

I've settled on focussing on the emotions, the main thoughts
(assuming all the data collecting and shuffling happens at the back,
conscious to him but not anyone looking at his head), and am showing
the rest more by how they're seen by others, and in retrospect
(plans coming about as intended), and the occasional summary/
conclusion of what they are aware of.

Listing everything they know alone would be dead boring, never mind
that it took me six books to see that it was all planned, even the
'obviously' (to me normal person) crazy stuff. <g>

and also not to give away the character's solution to the problem
before the end of the story (since such a character probably has
figured out what was going on earlier than he reveals it).

The only problem I have there is deciding how much to give away to
make the actions comprehensible, versus leaving it all just as it
appears to the other normal people around them (the reader getting
the same as normal, even very smart, characters, one of the latter
being able to see right into such fast guy's head and unable to see
it all).

I've put in some thoughts (admitting he's lying, acting, and saying
what would happen if he were honest, without explaining it or
spelling out the actual problem of his situation/the cause --which I
think is the biggest problem a hypothetical reader might have), and
now wonder whether that's not too much.

Adding things later rarely works out well for me.

It also reminds me of another author. Wasn't there one with the
name of Gene Wolf or something?

Gene Wolfe is a very well reguarded author of SF/F who's often
used as an example of a SF author who writes in a "literary"
style.

Thanks.

--
"Not very scary. Ranes explained ghosts once, made about as much
sense as running around with a *** over the head does, too."
He lifted the *** to look at her. "Of course it's not scary.
It's me. Kian." -- Magic Earth VI
.

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