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Q&A How to not confuse readers with simultaneous events?

In an omniscient third person, I have 8 (practically unrelated) events going simultaneously in different parts of a large mansion. I want to present these events as they happen, but I feel jumping ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Weckar E.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:28:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/46719
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Weckar E.‭ · 2019-12-08T12:28:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
In an omniscient third person, I have 8 (practically unrelated) events going simultaneously in different parts of a large mansion. I want to present these events as they happen, but I feel jumping around every two sentences is bound to cause confusion!

Are there any prose or typographical tricks I could use to make this easier on the reader? The idea is to preserve a sense of hectic momentum, so a _little_ confusion would be fine.

Thus far I have tried taking the perspective of an inanimate object that naturally passes through these events at a rapid pace (An overly-aggressively thrown bouncy ball), but I found the scene(s) quickly became about the object rather than the events.

I suppose the exact feeling I want to elicit is a prose equivalent of, in film, the variable time single-shot scene. I realize this is impossible, but I think exploring the options I have would at the very least be educational.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-07-18T09:44:01Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 20