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Q&A Phrasing to balance immense speed with boredom

I'm not sure that can be done, especially if the MC is bored with it. It isn't a good idea to try and thrill the reader with the same thing again and again and again anyway! So do it once, and th...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40207
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:12:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40207
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:12:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
I'm not sure that can be done, especially if the MC is bored with it. It isn't a good idea to try and thrill the reader with the same thing again and again and again anyway!

So do it once, and then gloss over it.

In my story, one character is an extraordinary marksman. He takes this for granted, but **nobody** that sees him in action _for their first time_ ever takes it for granted. Their praise, astonishment, or laughter pleases him, it reminds him he is special, and there is nothing else particularly remarkable about him (by my design).

So I have, in the story, devised several reasons (including one early on) for him to exercise his talent in front of strangers, and amaze them. One in particular that sees this several times stops having any reaction. The marksman notices that, but he doesn't mention it: Because he gets it, he knows that after awhile, his friend would be more surprised if he _missed_!

The amazing things we experience will become routine and "just the way things are," after a few exposures. This goes for **readers** too, you can thrill them once with astonishing speed, but that's it. After that, they get it: The ship is crazy fast.

So pour all your attention into the first description. Make it long and milk the first-time. If nothing changes about the speed, it is boring to describe it in detail the second time. You can change something, add a fight or counter-attack, add a malfunction, hit a damn goose at 500 kmh.

This is why fights and battles can be evergreen, we can make each one different with different enemies, positions, stakes, and defenses.

But what you are talking about is static and unchanging, so the description just seems repetitive, and that gets boring quick.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-11-17T23:05:44Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 7