Writing Tips

3 - Time and Detail

Chapter 2: Yeet

"Chanyeol wait up!" Baekhyun yelled, packing up his backpack.

He ran up to Chanyeol but then Chanyeol turned around and grabbed his shoulders, kissing him on the lips.

Baekhyun flushed a deep red before Chanyeol suddenly said: "I like Kyungsoo."

"Uh—"

"Meet my new boyfriend Kyungsoo," he introduced and Kyungsoo stepped out from behind the pole two feet away.

"Didn't you just—"

And then a car ran over Baekhyun, the driver inside completely inebriated.

"Baekhyun!" Chanyeol exclaimed, running up to his best friend, his lover. "Oh my god what have I done! If only I wasn't an idiot and dated Kyungsoo like that!"

Baekhyun spluttered out blood as Chanyeol lifted up his torso and held him semi upright. 

"I love you Baekhyun I'm sorry," Chanyeol apologized, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Where the fuck did that car come from and how the hell did you suddenly get feelings for me in .2 seconds," Baekhyun said, his voice weak as Chanyeol brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Baekhyun, I should've appreciated you more when you were mine. And now I'm going to lose you and I'll regret my entire life."

"I'm not even dead yet in fact I think this isn't even a bad car crash—"

The line went dead and Baekhyun died in Chanyeol's arms.

—

Y'all I'm wheezing what did I just write

But anyway.

Baekhyun's words are what I am thinking whenever I read a scene like... that ^^^

Time is very, very important in stories.

There are flashbacks, foreshadowing, the dragging out of a scene—idk how to explain that one but I do know there's a specific word in French that explains when authors do that for extra effect—there is the skipping of specific and boring scenes, la téléscopage which in english is basically recounting a scene that happened at the same time as another scene that you've already talked about...

There are many tools to make a story more dynamic, so uSE THEM

If you get the timing in your story wrong, I promise it is going to be really weird.

It's difficult to make a story flow correctly but as long as you put effort into it then no one will see anything wrong with it... Unlike the little story I made up there.

Be descriptive. But not too descriptive.

In between dialogue, make sure to mention sometimes what your characters are doing. If it's constantly a back and forth talk between two characters with no indication of what they're doing outside of their conversation, it get's really difficult to follow. Everything seems like it passes way too quickly and you lose your readers in their conversation.

Example:

"Hey," Chanyeol said.

"How's it going?" Baekhyun asked.