: Re: How can one character narrate past events to another character? In my story there is a scene where a character narrates some past to another character. And this past consists of 600 - 900
If the back story is important, then the mystery should be enough for both your character who wants to hear the story and the reader reading your book. So first, you do some ground work to foreshadow the upcoming story. Then, it is a relatively simple nest. You take the character who is going to tell the story and he becomes the narrator and a few decisions determine direction.
Questions: (no correct answers)
Will this be an interactive session?
If it is then you'll still describe the current world, and have back and forth dialogue, but your teller will be giving all the details in dialogue tags.
If the answer is no, then you can have a giant monologue block, but instead you may want to transition (double return) and just tell the whole thing without quotes with your teller assuming the role of narrator.
Do you want to show or tell?
Story telling is a grand tradition. It's an opportunity to let your character embellish or exaggerate in their own voice, which can be informative and compelling. But most authors try to show when proactive things are happening. Showing changes the way the speaker talks or encourages you to lose the dialogue tags and break away.
Length matters: how do you want it to affect pacing?
You've indicated a fairly short passage. Which means you want to consider your pacing as well. Which direction you go changes whether momentum kicks up or slows down.
More posts by @Ann1701686
: I keep most of it in my head; but when I do write it down I just use an outline in a standard text editor. Word or Google docs is fine. The lowest level is the chapter, then the next
: Not quite a tone of voice, but I remember two book series where telepathy was distinguished from normal speech by a special syntax. In one of them phrases spoken telepathically were in cursive
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