Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Good idea to describe the heist place before the heist begins?

Keep in mind that a book is not a movie (yes, this sounds trivial and stupid, but bear with me). Movies uses images so they are easy imaginable. Opposite to that producing images in the reader's h...

posted 10y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:14:48Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9672
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar John Smithers‭ · 2019-12-08T03:14:48Z (over 4 years ago)
Keep in mind that a book is not a movie (yes, this sounds trivial and stupid, but bear with me).

Movies uses images so they are easy imaginable. Opposite to that producing images in the reader's head is the hard part. And you want to produce these images _and make them rememberable_ without the interesting, thrilling action (the heist) you need it for?

Well, either you have another exciting scene at the same place (where you have the same problem like you have now) and make the place visible and rememberable, or you describe what you need during the heist.

Be aware, that a reader could take his time. So if you use two scenes and the reader needs two days till he reaches the second scene (because he has not much reading time), will he still remember?

Two scenes or one, whatever you give the reader to read, make it interesting.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-12-09T10:18:12Z (over 10 years ago)
Original score: 6