# The Protagonist's Subjective Filter

## The Brain Sees What It Believes

We see the world not as it is, but as we believe it to be. The brain is a prediction machine — it constantly generates expectations based on past experience and then processes incoming data through those expectations. We don't perceive reality raw; we perceive reality through the filter of everything we've already experienced.

For fiction, this means: the protagonist does not see the world neutrally. They see it through the specific lens of their history, their misbelief, their desire, and their fears.

## How the Filter Works in Fiction

### Everything Is Coloured
When the protagonist enters a room, what they notice is determined by their filter:
- A character who was betrayed by a friend notices exits and escape routes
- A character who craves approval notices facial expressions and body language
- A character who feels invisible notices who is being watched and who isn't
- A character who fears abandonment notices who is standing close to whom

The same room, described through different filters, is a completely different place.

### Interpretation Is Not Neutral
The protagonist doesn't just notice things — they interpret them. And their interpretation is shaped by their misbelief:
- A neutral comment is heard as criticism (if the filter expects attack)
- A kind gesture is suspected as manipulation (if the filter expects betrayal)
- An innocent mistake is read as deliberate sabotage (if the filter expects hostility)

These misinterpretations are not errors in the writing — they are the writing. They show the reader, through specific moments, exactly how the protagonist's worldview distorts their experience.

### Memory Is Active, Not Passive
When the brain retrieves memories, it does so in the service of understanding the present moment. The protagonist doesn't remember randomly — they remember because something in the present activated a past experience.

For fiction: flashbacks and backstory must be triggered by present events. The character sees something now that connects to something then, and the memory surfaces because it's useful for interpreting the current situation. Flashbacks that arrive without this triggering mechanism feel arbitrary.

## Emotional Point of View

### Emotion Determines Meaning
Without emotional signal, the brain cannot assign meaning, make decisions, or prioritise information. A brain that cannot feel is a brain that cannot think. For readers: if they do not feel what the protagonist feels, they are not processing the story.

### The Protagonist Must React to Everything
Every event must register emotionally in the protagonist. The reaction need not be dramatic — it can be subtle, internal, even suppressed — but it must be present. If a character witnesses something and has no emotional response, the reader's mirror neurons have nothing to latch onto. Meaning collapses.

### Two Failures of Emotional POV

**1. Describing events without the protagonist's emotional response:**
"The building collapsed. Debris filled the street. People ran in every direction."
— This is journalism, not fiction. Where is the protagonist? What do they feel?

**2. Editorialising — telling the reader what to feel:**
"It was a terrible sight. Anyone would have been horrified."
— This is the author stepping in front of the character. Show the protagonist's specific, embodied response and let the reader's mirror neurons do the rest.

### The Correct Approach
Show the protagonist's physical, cognitive, and behavioural response:
"The building folded inward with a sound like the world cracking. Sarah's knees buckled. She grabbed the railing and held on while the dust rolled over her, gritty and hot, tasting of concrete and something worse."

The reader doesn't need to be told this is terrible. They are experiencing it through Sarah.

## Body Language as Subtext

The protagonist's physical response communicates what the character might never say directly. Humans instinctively read micro-expressions, posture, and gesture as signals of hidden truth.

### In Fiction
- Body language is not decoration — it is a "tell"
- The physical reaction often reveals more than dialogue
- A character who says "I'm fine" while gripping the armrest so hard their knuckles whiten is telling two stories simultaneously
- The reader instinctively trusts the body over the words

### Using Body Language Well
- Specific and fresh — not clichéd (avoid "her heart raced," "his blood ran cold")
- Consistent with the character — different people express the same emotion differently
- Revealing something the character wouldn't say — body language is subtext, not illustration
- Earning its place — every physical detail must carry meaning, not just atmosphere
