Hello, writers. I first came across the term “psychological distance” in one of John Gardner’s books on writing. He used it to mean the distance that the reader perceives between him/herself and the character.
(The term actually comes from
social psychology
--but let’s stick to writing.)
In most cases, in popular fiction, you want to reduce the psychological distance between reader and character as much as possible. This gives your story more emotional impact, and provides a more enjoyable experience for the reader. Many people read at least partly because they want to see through someone else’s eyes. I suspect that part of the reason for the success of the Harry Potter books is that the psychological distance between Harry and the reader is nearly zero.
When you write in limited-omniscient viewpoint (fully omniscient viewpoint is rarely used anymore) you necessarily have to increase psychological distance, since the story isn’t seen through just one character’s eyes. That’s one reason why single-viewpoint (or, sometimes, a deliberate shift between two or, more rarely, three or more viewpoints) is more common nowadays.
Much of what we talk about in these diaries has to do with decreasing psychological distance.
Some things that decrease psychological distance are:
- using more than one sense in describing a scene (the viewpoint character is experiencing it with all his/her senses; s/he’s there, and so is the reader)
- using language that doesn’t call attention to itself –mainly short, everyday words, and unconvoluted sentences
- showing the viewpoint character’s feelings (as unobtrusively as possible)
- showing the viewpoint character reacting to events in a less-than-perfect, human way
(eg s/he can get annoyed, feel cranky, act selfish… s/he’s not always a Hero, any more than real heroes are)
Things that increase psychological distance and can disengage the reader from the story:
- using formal, stilted, or sesquipedalian words where simpler ones are available (Teh Guru says to avoid “latinate” words) (and yes, this includes many synonyms for “said”)
- writing in a style that calls attention to the writer rather than the character
- viewing the character from a distance, as we perforce observe others in real life, and seldom or never showing his/her feelings, thoughts, reactions, or sensory perceptions
Tonight’s challenge… here’s the scene:
A callow youth (male or female) and his/her Stout Companion are deep in a swamp, bearing the Magical Onion of Othmar, which they must trade to the Least Grebe for information about the whereabouts of the sacred jewel of Togwogmagog.
They don’t know where to find the Least Grebe, though, and as they venture further into the swamp, darkness is closing in, and alligators are creeping over the transom.
Write the scene (or the first 100 words of it) twice.
The first time, do it from a limited omniscient viewpoint. That means that you are seeing each character from the outside, so you can describe anybody’s appearance, expression, etc—but you can’t describe anybody’s thoughts.
The second time, do it from a single character’s viewpoint. That means we can see the viewpoint character’s thoughts, but not his/her face, and we can see everybody else’s faces, but not their thoughts. Try to reduce psychological distance as close to zero as possible. What the POV character feels, we feel, what s/he believes, we believe (at least temporarily).
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