The topic for today, boys and girls, is filtering, a big no-no in deep POV. Filter's are words at the beginning of the sentence that describe the character's thoughts in narrative fashion. These bad boys are guilty of diluting the reading experience. Raise your hands if you use filters. I admit I'm guilty.
Examples:
With Filter: I thought it was supposed to rain.
With Filter:I felt it was the right thing to do.
Without Filter: It was the right thing to do.
With Filter: I heard the phone ring.
Without Filter: The phone rang.
With Filter: I saw the guard at the gate.
Without Filter: The guard stood at the gate.
I'm currently on a de-filtering (This word came from the Cox Dictionary by the way) project. Some of the filters are easy-smeasy to remove. Others not so much. What about you? Have you ran across any filtering problems you'd care to share?
12 comments:
Good morning, Sandra. The Easter Bunny was very good to me. Decided not to jump me and call me his own for a change. It's shocking, I know. I had quite a bit of fun with the Inlaws, though. Doesn't that sound scary and ironic? I thought it was. It was. (Unfiltered)
Hey Blue, glad the Easter Bunny was good to you:) Good job on the unfiltered:)
I have a list of "telling" words (as I call them) that I find and highlight when I'm editing. All those that aren't used in dialogue get fixed. I don't give a darn if I use them in my first draft, since the goal is to write the story to the end.
I know I'm not supposed to do this. I knew it when I wrote the first draft. And I'm STILL having to pluck them out on revision. I knew, I thought, I felt, I saw. Ugh.
Yep. It's part of the editing process I am in right now. Equally guilty of throwing in was/had instead of the stronger, more active verb. So much red ink...
Hmmmm no comment on grounds that might incriminate me. lol
Very nice, Sandra. Since I'm in the midst of editing I'm trying to keep filters in mind.
Good plan, Stacy. I like it.
I'm right there with you, L.G.
Robin, Oh no! Not the dreaded active verbs.
LOL, Pat.
You and me both, Julia dear. I'm slogging through.
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