"An attempt to write nothing but characterization will soon bog down; I for one don't want to have somebody tell me about someone else"
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Moran is taking a sharp swing at a certain workshop orthodoxy: the idea that “deep characterization” is a story’s highest good, even if the plot, stakes, and lived moment are left starving. The line is almost impatient on purpose. “Bog down” is the tell - he’s describing prose that turns into narrative sludge, where the reader is forced to wade through interior dossiers and backstory memos instead of experiencing events with urgency.
The key bite is in the second clause: “I… don’t want to have somebody tell me about someone else.” That’s a rejection of secondhand intimacy. Moran’s subtext is that too much characterization often arrives as explanation, not dramatization: an author translating a person into a report, then asking the reader to accept the report as emotional truth. He’s arguing for immediacy, for the difference between watching a character choose (under pressure, in motion) and being briefed on their personality the way you’d be briefed on a new coworker.
Contextually, this sits squarely in the modern genre-fiction conversation where “character-driven” can become a marketing halo and a craft cudgel. Moran, a writer with sci-fi’s impatience for inertia, is staking out a reader-centric ethic: story is not a psychological résumé. If you want me to care, don’t narrate your understanding of a person - put that person in a scene where their nature has consequences.
The key bite is in the second clause: “I… don’t want to have somebody tell me about someone else.” That’s a rejection of secondhand intimacy. Moran’s subtext is that too much characterization often arrives as explanation, not dramatization: an author translating a person into a report, then asking the reader to accept the report as emotional truth. He’s arguing for immediacy, for the difference between watching a character choose (under pressure, in motion) and being briefed on their personality the way you’d be briefed on a new coworker.
Contextually, this sits squarely in the modern genre-fiction conversation where “character-driven” can become a marketing halo and a craft cudgel. Moran, a writer with sci-fi’s impatience for inertia, is staking out a reader-centric ethic: story is not a psychological résumé. If you want me to care, don’t narrate your understanding of a person - put that person in a scene where their nature has consequences.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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