Seeing from Within

Understanding Focalization in Literature 2

Focalization in creative writing is typically achieved through 3 main ways.

The first one is Internal Focalization: 

If focalization itself has to do with who sees the story,

internal focalization is about what happens when the story is seen from within a specific mind.

Here, the narration is not distant. It does not stand outside the character.

Scenes are no longer blurred as neutral happenings, but as experiences formed by thought, memory, emotion, and limitation.

Internal Focalization takes readers inside the character's mind, through every thought and they perceive what it feels like to be in the character's shoes.

A room is not just described, it is felt and noticed.

A silence is not just present, it is interpreted.

A gesture is not just seen, it is judged, misunderstood, appreciated or feared.

In internal focalization, the world of the story is filtered through a particular character’s consciousness.

Hence:

_ we know what they know

_ we feel what they feel

_ we suspect what they suspect

_ we believe what they believe 

But it also confines us to their imaginative limits.

Because the full scope and events of a story cannot be achieved through one person's perception – (Though my current novel is written entirely through the lead character's lens, I'm testing how far I can push this constraint)

A character may misread a situation.

They may assume meaning where there is none.

They may overlook what is obvious to others.

So their perception becomes our reality in the story.

This is the power and the constraint of internal focalization.

It creates intimacy between the reader and the character.

It draws the reader inward, but at the same time, it restricts knowledge.

Readers aren't given the whole details.

We're given a version of what a particular person thinks of it.

And sometimes, that version is unstable or false.

Internal focalization introduces tension not only through events, but through perception.

You may often begin to doubt:

Is this what truly happened?

Or is this just what Charline thought had happened?

The deeper we move into a character’s mind, 

the less certain the world becomes.

But the more emotionally real it feels.

Because what is subjective is often what feels more true to believe.

Internal focalization is not only a technique of narration.

It is a way of binding the reader to a single point of experience, where meaning is not particularly fixed.

Perspective is everything😉

I started this Focaization  topic initially, I think sometime last month and I forgot to complete it. 

Princess Ella ⚜️