: Re: Spicing up a moment of peace In the ever swinging tone of a novel, one may wish to show a moment of peace amidst all the chaos. In my novel it happens a few times, most notably when characters

@Megan928

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You seem to suggest that a paragraph that has no other function whatsoever within the narrative, beyond providing an evocative pause, is somehow special, or maybe even "pure".

Of course, such a paragraph already serves a function within the pace of the narrative, by providing the pause. Perhaps you want just such a pause: evocative, but not advancing character arcs or plot in any way. I think this is fine, conceptually. Practically, if the reader is sufficiently engaged, and the pause is well placed, there will be enough forward momentum for the reader to keep going, while even enjoying the well-timed respite.

Indeed, I think that such a pause can be effective in a scene-sequel structure, especially if the reader needs time to process what came before in the story. Even if the text providing the pause does not itself promote the plot or character arcs, it's possible that something huge has just happened, and the reader needs a break from even more important things occurring in order to subconsciously get to grips with the latest events.

However, I would like to question the value of stripping some text of other possible narrative function. Why not introduce a new scene, or in some other way advance your worldbuilding, during such a descriptive section? Why not provide subtle characterisation, by colouring your description with the main character's point of view?

It's fair to identify some goals for such text, e.g.: be evocative; provide a pause in the pace of the narrative; don't prompt the reader to look for hidden gotchas such as plot twist foreshadowing, or the previous two goals will be subverted. That's fine, and now we've excluded e.g. plot twists from using information provided in this text--but we can still do other things, e.g. the subtle characterisation mentioned above.

An example of how to achieve such characterisation would be contrast. So, for instance, the main character has suffered a major setback just previously. Now, we provide an evocative, beautiful description of some natural scene, but the elements of the scene that remind the character of her loss make her melancholy, and this emotion is reflected (although not explained) in the description (e.g. through our choice of descriptive metaphor, not by telling how the character feels). Perhaps these emotions themselves have an arc to them, e.g. perhaps they are ameliorated, as the character processes her loss (again, we don't explain that this is happening; rather, we show how the main character copes with adversity, through the variation in how she reacts sadly to a beautiful scene).

I think that by giving the "evocative pause" text additional, subtle function, you will also make it more engaging, because the reader's mind continues to actively receive information at multiple levels, even if obvious "excitement" such as major plot progress remains missing.

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