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Q&A How to Write about Events the 1st-person Protagonist Hasn't Witnessed?

One more option is to write them as hypotheticals. "If I had known that..." If I had known what terrifying events were unfolding while I sat in the cafè! Twenty miles from Pittsburgh, on the o...

posted 5y ago by _X_‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-18T21:34:21Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40825
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 · 2019-12-08T10:23:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40825
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:23:34Z (over 4 years ago)
One more option is to write them as hypotheticals.

### "If I had known that..."

> If I had known what terrifying events were unfolding while I sat in the cafè! Twenty miles from Pittsburgh, on the other side of the planet, Mary was dialing her sister's number. The phone rang twice, and quickly Susan chirped at the other end of the line. She barely uttered 'hello' when Mary began telling her of a certain fact that would have turned my coffee cold by the mere thought of it.

Blend them in the text by addressing the reader directly. There are ways of presenting them as facts, such that the reader will be dragged even further in the story.

### "My dear reader, the thing is that..."

> My dear reader, the thing is that as I am telling you of my adventure with the train conductor, Mary, in Pittsburgh, nine times zones away from me, has just lifted the phone receiver and is pressing her thin fingers on the dial pad. Neither you or I know about this, but as you will soon learn, the fact, which Mary is about to tell Susan, will have a quite remarkable effect on our adventure.

Provide them as a vision, and describe the astonishment, later, when you figure out that the vision was true.

### For a moment the world faded...

> For a moment the world around me seemed to fade. As I plunged in darkness, unable to scream for help, I noticed but a faint silhouette, a shade of milk on a well roasted coffee. It looked like Mary, in her nightgown. She was sitting by her bed, and kept the phone in her lap. She had one ear pressed on the receiver, and with her hand she was quickly dialing. With a chill I opened my eyes. All around me was as I had left it. The coffee was still sitting on the table with its slow curls of steam rising in the air. And the waitress waited, snorting, for the change. Still shaken by that unexpected vision, I fumbled in my pockets and emptied three quarters on the table before dashing outside.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-12-19T19:05:01Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 4