I honestly thought Ke Huy Quan stopped acting because he wanted to - he just…disappeared after The Goonies andTemple of Doom. But I’m watching these interviews with him for EEAAO, and it turns out that he simply couldn’t get work in front of the camera as he got older, becausethere were no good roles for Asian people in Hollywood.
He decided to get back into acting when he saw Crazy Rich Asians. EEAAO is his first role in 20 years, and he is AMAZING in it. And all I can think about is all of the amazing Ke Huy Quan films that could have been over the last 20 years.
Whole-heartedly BEGGING writers to unlearn everything schools taught you about how long a paragraph is. If theres a new subject, INCLUDING ACTIONS, theres a new paragraph. A paragraph can be a single word too btw stop making things unreadable
Ok So I’m getting more notes than I thought quicker than I expected! So I’m gonna elaborate bc I want to.
I get it, when you’re someone who writes a lot and talks a lot, it’s hard to keep things readable, but it’s not as much about cutting out the fat(that can be a problem) so much as a formatting issue.
You are also actively NERFING yourself by not formatting it correctly, it can make impactful scenes feel so, so much better. Compare this,
To THIS.
Easier to read, and hits harder.
No more over-saturated paragraphs. Space things out.
Just adding my two cents in here! I totally agree with spacing things out more. Especiallyin the sort of example like above. Dialogue is always better as its own line and clusters of actions deserve their own paragraph.
Here are three reasons why I like the extra paragraphs in the example made by OP.
1) Following a character’s internal dialogue. If you’re having a character move from one thought to another, or one emotion to another, new paragraph! It shows the reader that there’s a shift happening and can really add power to the scene.
“He vaguely remembers what his friend told him about letting go. It…was so horrifying to him- he melted the freezer aisle in fear.
But…he’s tired. He needs to let go.”
The paragraph break between the first thought (it used to scared him) to the second (he needs to let go regardless) has super great flow. It lets me, as a reader, feel the significance of this change through the structure alone.
2) Connecting internal world to external. this one’s a little harder to explain, but bear with me!
“…Yeah.”
He looks in the mirror.
…He’s tired of carrying…
In this scene we have Dialogue to Action to Internal Thought. The sequencing is super clear because of the paragraphs and we get a lot more information from these three lines than we would have otherwise. He verbally comes to a decision. What is that decision? It seems like he hasn’t even fully come to terms with what it is. So he looks in the mirror. Only when he sees himself there does he finally allow his internal monologue to surface.
The writer uses the space in the scene - the mirror - to anchor the narrative. It’s really well done and only succeeds because the new paragraph allows the story to shift from external to internal and then back again.
3) Carrying the journey. In the first example, where there are no paragraphs, the scene is not a journey. It’s a single moment in time where the MC sees himself in the mirror and cuts his hair.
By adding paragraphs, we get a journey. Linearly, the scene only lasts a few moments. But by shifting between internal and external, by showing the MC’s thoughts, etc, these moments take up a lot more narrative space. They become a story on their own and, because of it, there’s so much more tension in the scene.
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There are a lot of reasons why the above scene is so successful. I could go on and on about them! But I particularly liked the point OP made about how much of a difference paragraphs make.
this has only gotten more important as more ppl are reading on mobile. paragraphs babeeeeyy
dream up a fake-married couple, wield their fraudulent union to achieve your shared goals, and do your best not to blow your cover – or fall in love for real. for 2 or 4 players (1 or 2 pairs), played with 8-sided dice and standard playing cards.
thank you so much for checking this out, i’m so so excited to share it!
you guys!!!! i woke up to EotP ranking in the “top sellers” and “new and popular” categories on itchio for physical games!!!! what the fuck!!!!
what a wonderful and encouraging response for launch night… thank u guys so much. i really poured a lot into this and worked hard on it so seeing ppl respond like this seriously means the world to me
