EternalSunset0
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- Nov 7, 2020
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Here's a thing that I've been trying to learn, and maybe some can help me out. I think it happens a lot in my work and ends up inflating the word count, but how much "mental justification" is optimal for you for a decision made?
Say, a character makes a decision or does something. Afterwards, I often have same character walk/run alone and start monologuing to himself about why he did that, or have narration do the job (which can sound infodumpy), but I feel that those moments end up padding out the chapter. However, if I don't do that, I don't think I can convey the emotions or mindset of a character properly or at least "defend" his actions from his perspective. So readers would think "what an asshole" or "damn, but it kinda makes sense" instead of "wait, he wasn't supposed to act that way" because they felt he's OOC.
This is especially common when someone does something stupid or hypocritical, and I'd always have a mental or narrative explanation of why that happened a couple of paragraphs later, when I shift to said character's perspective.
I'd like to know how you guys go about this dilemma or what I can do, so I can take note of those for my future volumes and a possible polishing run on the series as a whole.
Say, a character makes a decision or does something. Afterwards, I often have same character walk/run alone and start monologuing to himself about why he did that, or have narration do the job (which can sound infodumpy), but I feel that those moments end up padding out the chapter. However, if I don't do that, I don't think I can convey the emotions or mindset of a character properly or at least "defend" his actions from his perspective. So readers would think "what an asshole" or "damn, but it kinda makes sense" instead of "wait, he wasn't supposed to act that way" because they felt he's OOC.
This is especially common when someone does something stupid or hypocritical, and I'd always have a mental or narrative explanation of why that happened a couple of paragraphs later, when I shift to said character's perspective.
I'd like to know how you guys go about this dilemma or what I can do, so I can take note of those for my future volumes and a possible polishing run on the series as a whole.