: Re: How can I break up a lengthy explanation? I have a setting in one of my stories where a character has to describe a very long series of events, giving the history of an object so that others

@Carla500

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Phil Farrand of The Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek called this "being the cabbagehead." Certain information had to be revealed to the audience, but it was information which the characters would reasonably already know.

So the writers picked someone in the room to be the "cabbagehead," meaning someone developed the I.Q. of a cabbage and everything had to be explained to him or her as though s/he had never gone through Starfleet training and years of spaceflight experience. (Counselor Troi got this role a lot on TNG.)

Practically speaking, you set things up so one or more of your characters is woefully uninformed about whatever it is, and the more informed character(s) have to enlighten the cabbageheads. As far as technique, Kate and iajrz both have excellent suggestions.

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