Post History
Recounting events that the reader has already seen is almost never OK. It is repetition. It is boring. The essence of drama is tension. Writing a novel is difficult precisely because it is diffic...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:58Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48109 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:59:51Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48109 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:59:51Z (over 4 years ago)
Recounting events that the reader has already seen is almost never OK. It is repetition. It is boring. The essence of drama is tension. Writing a novel is difficult precisely because it is difficult to maintain tension over hundreds of pages. Going back over old ground is very antithesis of tension. The only circumstances in which is would be okay is if it is incidental to something else that has a tension of its own, and if the recollection of past events is essential to creating tension in the present scene. That is tough to do, and it is hard to think of too many cases where it would be necessary to create or maintain tension. In short, unless having characters recount events the reader has already seen is the only way to create or maintain tension in the current scene,and the current scene is indispensable to the tension of the piece as a whole, don't do it.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-09-21T12:13:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 3