How much narration is TOO much?

Sometimes authors put in narration to make the story seem deeper and well-written. However, sometimes there is TOO much detail that it almost seems unnecessary. So, how much narration is too much?

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I think it depends. In episode I don’t need to know every single detail because I can already see it on the screen. It takes a healthy balance between narration and movement/zooms/ good spot directioning. If that makes sense lol

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There’s a certain extent for me for using narration. If the author heavily relies on narration to thoroughly describe their characters instead of letting them portray their personalities on their own, then it bothers me, but like as the person above me said, it depends really. :slight_smile:

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i think The New Girl has too much narration, but that’s just my opinion

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I preach your opinion. I get bored when authors just…go with the characters’ details and what’s happening on screen (like, hey! We know what’s happening, you don’t need to tell :roll_eyes:).

I guess if you tell a character’s backstory or some important info about them in narration, then yes, it interests the reader.

If the narration is going on while the scene behind depicts the narration, then that also makes the story interesting to read :slight_smile:

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Like, I use narration, but the narration is NOT the author or a narrator, it’s my main character who’s talking, if that makes sense, and i only use it when i describe how she’s feeling or what she’s thinking or if something happens that there is no animation for.

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I suck at including narration in my own stories! I struggle to balance. Like I feel I use it to set the story a bit, but by episode 4, I’m just like uhhh what do I really need to say here?

I feel like in stories where theres upwards of 20 episodes though, the amount of narration increases the longer the story goes on. It’s like the opposite of me. I see it mostly when the MC finally gets the LI and becomes official. After that, it’s just SO MUCH narration while the two kiss every five seconds. I usually think the story has reached its end once it relies heavily on narrating kisses like that. Haha.

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Narration is good for describing things you can’t show on Episode (because of the medium’s limitation, NOT because of guidelines). Once you rely on narration to tell things you can show, it’s too much.

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Some authors be doing the most and be explaining things that obviously don’t need to be explained or when they’re adding TOO much detail. For example when a kissing scene goes on episode the authors are like: “I passionately kissed his red rosey soft lips they delicately locked into my lips as he slowly put his hands on my hips and I grabbed on too his shoulder for dear life it was magical it felt like time froze as we kissed…” there’s more to that but they just keep on adding TOO much detail

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I think this is a question of preference, but long narrations are super boring to me. I understand they are needed in the pilot episodes, and of course I use them as well, but I prefer when something is actually happening on the screen, even if some scenes are heavy in narration. And yeah, some “kissing” scenes can go into um… too much detail. Way too much :see_no_evil:

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I think that Narration is important because as much as we all love the character animations, they are limited so what the author tries to show using the animation might be different than what the reader sees. Also some authors may not want you to second guess how any of the characters are feeling during a situation so they tell you using Narration. So personally I think there is never enough narration.

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I’m trying to write mine using no narration in the actual form of narration. I like to give more insight to the characters by doing thought bubbles, but I’m trying to not narrate at all. Except for what time it is! Time can be important sometimes.

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I’ve been guilty of depending on narration to show character’s tendencies in my story but I decided to adjust that and show the character’s behaviour through dialogue.

I can deal with narration - I do enjoy reading the thoughts of the MC when written very nicely like in Nour’s story The Dream and the Dreamer. There’s a really brilliant and dynamic mix of description as well as dialogue.

How would a characters thoughts be written un-nicely? Just curious. I know that might seem to come off mean, but I have no idea how else to ask. I’m not a wordsmith. Lol

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So, I guess - with “unnice” the description is quite basic I suppose?

I think you should use narration when the animations don’t show what you want to tell.
If you use narration even when the animations perfectly describes the mood/whatever, I think you should be very aware of how much narration you’re adding as it can easily become too much.
I’ve seen a lot of people say “show - don’t tell” and I believe that’s very very important when you’re writing a story on Episode.

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Oh, I think I got you. If you’re gonna narrate, do it like how’d you expect it to look in a real book?

“The sky is blue. The sky has clouds. The clouds are fluffy.” <— Like that’s no fun to read. XDXD

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“Keith dropped the potato. The potato grew legs.”

Yeah bland narration kinda puts me off haha

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And long narration about the scene goes on and on.

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