Objectivity is bullsh*t
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SUBJECTIVITY and care about Your Perspective, not a generic one
These days I’m still getting all my best life advice from a decor blog. ForScale has been dishing out some real bangers and I've had one in particular on my mind for weeks now. A few months ago they wrote:
Objectivity is bullsh*t! ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SUBJECTIVITY and care about Your Perspective, not a generic one. ~For Scale 2/23/26
That whole article is a banger. Unfortunately I see that they've made it for subscribers only. Let me summarize for you: they posit that "acceptable" decor is inherently bland decor. Decor cannot be exceptional except by the expression of a unique perspective and a personal joy in decorating your space with the odd and even clashing things bring you joy. So why are you persuing something inherently bland when you could be decorating to make one person happy: you.
So if this is a writing blog, why are we thinking about interior design? Because aesthetic principals cross all disciplines. That advice applies to your writing just as much as it applies to your interior design (but maybe think about both).
Think about objectivity in writing. Objective writing is writing designed to communicate to the most people accurately. What kinds of writing are objective? Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and (in theory) news broadcasts. Objective writing is the opposite of emotional writing. And I think it is pretty clear that objective writing is bland.
When we are writing fiction, don't we want our readers to have an emotional experience? So why are we trying to be objective in our writing? Why are we trying to reach all people? Writing that takes a stance, has a perspective, an opinion, is the opposite of objective. And its when your characters start finding their voice, and you start to find yours.
Give your characters all the opinions, things they love, things they loathe. Big things, but also little things. Do they like the coffee shop down the block? WHY? Why not? A character who hates the coffee shop down the block because it's run by a huge corporate chain, is different than one that hates it because it's where all the young people hang out. And they're both different than the person that hates the place because it's where they broke up with their ex three years ago and they've never been able to bring themselves to go back.
The things they highlight tells us something about them. Let their opinions creep into their descriptions. Let it color how they see people. Let it soak into their days and haunt their nights.
And, crucially, let your characters express their opinions to other people. Especially to characters who don’t have the same opinion of things. Let that clash across the page. About big things, sure, but also small things.
Donald Maass has a whole section on letting your characters express themselves this in Emotional Craft of Fiction. Which is a great read if you think this is a thing you need to work on. But for me I’m going to blazon the words from ForScale across the top of my revisions: Objectivity is Bullsh*t.
