: Re: Describing slices of a tedious eternity without becoming tedious This is a story of a guy in the waiting room for the afterlife. Because this guy was a horrible specimen of humanity in his

@Frith254

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Let the audience figure out the time scale
Start the plot with him being dropped in the maze without telling the audience how many times he has been in the maze already. Use flash back and exposition to drop clues that this is not his first time in the maze. The audience should figure out well before he gets out of the maze that this is not his first loop, but a basic reveal should be in place just in case.
For example at the start of the story he is seen making a scratch on a wall covered in scratches. On the next loop he does it again, at which point it is explained just how many scratches are present on the wall.
Integrate suspense into the story
If the maze is a simple maze, then it will get boring fast. If there is a sense of suspense it can negate some of the tediousness of it. This can come from any source that you wish to include, but it will be for you to decide how you want to introduce it.
Focus on different aspects of facing eternity with each loop
Do not include all the details in the first loop, leave some juicy details for the other loops. If the first loop is focused on his perspective of how smart he is for figuring the system. Then focus the next loop on something else, like how he is surviving in the maze.

Are there any examples of this getting done elsewhere?

A good example of this was done in a Doctor Who episode called Heaven Sent. Since the time scale is part of the plot of the episode I marked the summary below in a spoiler:

The Doctor is trapped in a castle, with no obvious way to escape it. By the end of the first loop he finds a wall that is blocking his escape, but it is too hard for him to break through, but he punches it anyways. The Doctor then sets a chain of events in motion to start a new loop. It is then revealed that the first loop was not the first loop at all, but the Doctor had been doing the same loop of events for 7,000 years by that point. It then features a montage highlighting the gradual break through of the wall over billions of years eventually allowing him to escape the loop.

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