Help!
Some people say paragraphs must have one [something]. Some say to paragraph based on specific criteria.
A lead-in:
I've seen scene basics like G-M-C, G-C-S (or the last part as a frustrated expectation; don't know how to put that into the acronym, though), etc. I've seen scenes explained as up to fifteen different 'types' to explain their purposes and 'shapes'. And I basically understand these things, even though there seems to be many different forms of scene outline/structure, etc.
I think I understand why a character's dialogue has its own paragraph, even if there's an action beat rather than a speech tag. In which case, the action goes with the dialogue and is part of the 'beat'. Or Clip.
And therein lies the second part of this discussion.
When to paragraph in fiction?
Some people use an MRU (Motivation Reaction Unit). It's also known as cause-effect, Action-Reaction-More Action, a Beat (or bit, depending on where you first hear it), a Clip or possibly others (which I haven't seen yet - why do so many people use different words when they're talking about only one effect?).
Essentially, to my way of understanding, they all mean the same.
It's about clarity for the reader. That's how I understand it. This is how I think it goes for fiction:
For example, when the POV character's dialogue or changes from internal to an external view (they're about to/are experiencing non-internal moments), or a different character's dialogue.
When the POV internals change to an external action/event.
When a different character opens his mouth.
When something happens that 'moves' (or blocks) the actions/reactions within the scene.
ETC.
The MRU: The motivation causes a reaction and each of these is represented in a different paragraph. It's a unit because it's a cause and effect moment (which should take care of cause and effect - the cause comes first and must be experienced before the effect can be shown).
The word 'beat' came from a Russian director with an accent and in order for people (acters [yes, that's deliberate]) to understand what he meant, they interpreted 'bit' as beat. And his interpretation of beat is one piece of the scene that holds the pieces before and after together but isn't part of either of them. Complex, but what do we expect from a Director, let alone a perfectionist Russian?
A beat is a change of the camera view, and used in the movie-making business. Novels and stories have the added bonus of internals (thoughts, feelings, internal dialogue), so my interpretation of a beat for fiction includes more than a change of camera focus. It considers how the POV character in the scene is experiencing things.
If the POV char is thinking, feeling, emoting in some way, it's an internal beat. As soon as the POV char changes the focus from internal to external, that then becomes a new para. If they're experiencing the setting, which is external, that's an external clip/beat. How they react to that can be external (run away reaction) or internal (freeze and panic).
In short, that makes the need to change a para the same as the expectations for changing a para when there's a change of character who speaks or acts. But it's not consistent, either in the way these things are defined, written, or spoken about.
And worse, it's also a lot like the ways I see 'telling' defined.
Narrative Summary seems to cover all forms of telling, and yet it's only one.
Summary is used to summarise actions, dialogue, feelings, thoughts and descriptions, etc.
Narrative - is this the same as Narrative Summary or not? To me, if I have a third person POV, that person is the narrator of the scene. That's his/her narrative (yes, I know there are short moments when a bit of distance is created by moving away, getting a bit of distance, etc. but that's a different matter - I'm happy to call them camera shots (from panoramic to close-up), but you can tell me what it really is and give a few examples, yes?).
Telling can be description that isn't written from the perspective of the POV character. It's not connected, and therefore, doesn't add to mood or theme.
Exposition is similar to description if it's a dump of information that isn't dramatised by the characters. It may not be summary, but it could be, and yet it's often lumped in as an explanation of narrative summary. However, exposition is an explanation of facts, often separate from character or dramatisation.
Summary, as I understand it, is a shortened space of events. It may feel distant from the POV character, or it may not. In a way, some of the discussion around transitions may enlighten on this definition. A shortening of events that don't move the story forward, but that need to be there to show the movement of something. I think I understand that.
Narrative Summary? No idea, because putting these two words together is like concatenating POV and Cut, or am I missing something?
Does anyone have a simple explanation for these words and what they mean?
Beat, Clip, ARM, MRU, and how they define when a new para is req'd?
Narrative Summary.
Tells: Summary, Exposition, Description - or is it easier to define all these as 'tells' and therefore some form of summary - but don't say Narrative Summary!?
Yes, frustrated, but I bet you couldn't tell that at a glance ...
Some people say paragraphs must have one [something]. Some say to paragraph based on specific criteria.
A lead-in:
I've seen scene basics like G-M-C, G-C-S (or the last part as a frustrated expectation; don't know how to put that into the acronym, though), etc. I've seen scenes explained as up to fifteen different 'types' to explain their purposes and 'shapes'. And I basically understand these things, even though there seems to be many different forms of scene outline/structure, etc.
I think I understand why a character's dialogue has its own paragraph, even if there's an action beat rather than a speech tag. In which case, the action goes with the dialogue and is part of the 'beat'. Or Clip.
And therein lies the second part of this discussion.
When to paragraph in fiction?
Some people use an MRU (Motivation Reaction Unit). It's also known as cause-effect, Action-Reaction-More Action, a Beat (or bit, depending on where you first hear it), a Clip or possibly others (which I haven't seen yet - why do so many people use different words when they're talking about only one effect?).
Essentially, to my way of understanding, they all mean the same.
It's about clarity for the reader. That's how I understand it. This is how I think it goes for fiction:
For example, when the POV character's dialogue or changes from internal to an external view (they're about to/are experiencing non-internal moments), or a different character's dialogue.
When the POV internals change to an external action/event.
When a different character opens his mouth.
When something happens that 'moves' (or blocks) the actions/reactions within the scene.
ETC.
The MRU: The motivation causes a reaction and each of these is represented in a different paragraph. It's a unit because it's a cause and effect moment (which should take care of cause and effect - the cause comes first and must be experienced before the effect can be shown).
The word 'beat' came from a Russian director with an accent and in order for people (acters [yes, that's deliberate]) to understand what he meant, they interpreted 'bit' as beat. And his interpretation of beat is one piece of the scene that holds the pieces before and after together but isn't part of either of them. Complex, but what do we expect from a Director, let alone a perfectionist Russian?
A beat is a change of the camera view, and used in the movie-making business. Novels and stories have the added bonus of internals (thoughts, feelings, internal dialogue), so my interpretation of a beat for fiction includes more than a change of camera focus. It considers how the POV character in the scene is experiencing things.
If the POV char is thinking, feeling, emoting in some way, it's an internal beat. As soon as the POV char changes the focus from internal to external, that then becomes a new para. If they're experiencing the setting, which is external, that's an external clip/beat. How they react to that can be external (run away reaction) or internal (freeze and panic).
In short, that makes the need to change a para the same as the expectations for changing a para when there's a change of character who speaks or acts. But it's not consistent, either in the way these things are defined, written, or spoken about.
And worse, it's also a lot like the ways I see 'telling' defined.
Narrative Summary seems to cover all forms of telling, and yet it's only one.
Summary is used to summarise actions, dialogue, feelings, thoughts and descriptions, etc.
Narrative - is this the same as Narrative Summary or not? To me, if I have a third person POV, that person is the narrator of the scene. That's his/her narrative (yes, I know there are short moments when a bit of distance is created by moving away, getting a bit of distance, etc. but that's a different matter - I'm happy to call them camera shots (from panoramic to close-up), but you can tell me what it really is and give a few examples, yes?).
Telling can be description that isn't written from the perspective of the POV character. It's not connected, and therefore, doesn't add to mood or theme.
Exposition is similar to description if it's a dump of information that isn't dramatised by the characters. It may not be summary, but it could be, and yet it's often lumped in as an explanation of narrative summary. However, exposition is an explanation of facts, often separate from character or dramatisation.
Summary, as I understand it, is a shortened space of events. It may feel distant from the POV character, or it may not. In a way, some of the discussion around transitions may enlighten on this definition. A shortening of events that don't move the story forward, but that need to be there to show the movement of something. I think I understand that.
Narrative Summary? No idea, because putting these two words together is like concatenating POV and Cut, or am I missing something?
Does anyone have a simple explanation for these words and what they mean?
Beat, Clip, ARM, MRU, and how they define when a new para is req'd?
Narrative Summary.
Tells: Summary, Exposition, Description - or is it easier to define all these as 'tells' and therefore some form of summary - but don't say Narrative Summary!?
Yes, frustrated, but I bet you couldn't tell that at a glance ...
