: Re: Split up the section or flow straight through Is it a good idea to “split” the action/setting to show actions of other characters elsewhere, or make it flow straight through? Example: My

@Kaufman555

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Every time you break a scene then come back to it, the natural assumption is that the same amount of time which passed in the intervening scenes has also passed in the first. Chronological time continues to work for the entire world even when we have blinked to another location.

When we return to the scene, we do not flashback in time to the moment we left, unless there are scene indicators: a spoken line is repeated, or a timely action is referenced that "resets the story clock".

Similarly, if time has advanced when we return to the scene, with minutes or hours omitted, some indicator of the passage of time "resets the story clock", but time usually advances between scene changes so it's not unexpected.

A good plotter can create a "tight" story where the natural breaks in one timeline will chronologically fit the story beats in another to maintain a consistent sense of the passage of time: an entire story that fits in 1 day, or a film that plays in real-time.

Don't break a scene just to create a "cliffhanger". Break because there is a natural story drop, or when you need to maintain the urgency of conflict over a span of time where nothing really happens.

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