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There is always the temptation these days for a writer to try to act out a scene as they imagine it playing on a movie screen. But this does not work in prose. It is impossible in prose to have two...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:56Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33216 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T07:55:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33216 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T07:55:39Z (over 4 years ago)
There is always the temptation these days for a writer to try to act out a scene as they imagine it playing on a movie screen. But this does not work in prose. It is impossible in prose to have two things happen at once. The reader can only read one word at a time and a rapid back and forth between dialogue and action does not produce the impression of simultaneous speech and action, but of a rapid and confusing alternation of action and speech. What you do instead in prose is tell the reader that the two events happen simultaneously while keeping your prose constructs as simple as possible to avoid confusion. For example, you might do this: > "I. Really. Don't Care." she said, punctuating each word with a blow. A simple clear statement like this allows room for the reader's imagination to work. The danger with some of the more elaborate statements that people have suggested is that, because they are harder to follow, the reader's mind will be more occupied with deciphering the prose than with imagining the scene.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-02-13T13:13:17Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 22