Main Character's Depth of Field (Holly Schindler)

I've always had floaters.

You know, those squiggles in your eyes, those pieces that kind of bounce around in the vitreous? Most of the time, eye docs will tell you they show up in middle age. I had them as a little girl. I've also always been really nearsighted, too, and figured it all went together. 

Anyway...

I've spent my entire life not looking at them, but looking past them, at the objects in front of me. But a bad sinus infection has increased the pressure in my face, meaning my floaters are lately just driving me nuts. Every single time I move my eyes, the bounce past, and it just bothers me. 

I mean, forty-plus years with these things, and suddenly, it's all I see.

It's all just a matter of attention and focus. 

The same is true with our characters, though. They can be absolutely laser-focused on something no one else around them can even see. It can be consuming them, absorbing all of their worry or attention. As authors, it's our job to bring those things into focus for our readers, to explain our main character's mentality, aka their depth of field. (Do they see the big picture? Worry about the future? Only think about the next five minutes?) If we do this correctly, our readers will completely understand our character's behavior...even if no one else in our character's world does. 

~

Holly Schindler is the author of The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky