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Q&A Am I making the writing too complex?

There are two basic applications of this technique: serious and comedic. In the serious version, your character changes opinion about given passage while writing it. It tells about character devel...

posted 10y ago by SF.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:04:34Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/16338
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar SF.‭ · 2019-12-08T04:04:34Z (about 5 years ago)
There are two basic applications of this technique: serious and comedic.

In the serious version, your character changes opinion about given passage while writing it. It tells about character development, how their view of things changes through introspection and reminiscence.

> My best friends gave their lives for this country the wealth of the oil tycoons.

This technique is also quite successfully used for comedic effect where the character first expresses true thoughts and then replaces them with euphemisms, for example replacing childish glee of enthusiasm with more serious and moderate approach:

> "Yes, yes! I'm yours, let's do it! This idea has some merit and is worthy of further consideration."

Note: strike-through considerably reduces legibility. Don't overuse it. Crossing out single sentences is okay, but if you cross out entire paragraphs, you're abusing it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-02-26T07:41:14Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 0