Thank you, Sonia.Kitty wrote:if I may make a suggestion (of course I may, since you asked ), I understand this "suddenly" differently. It's not as if she shouted this immediately glued to the previous sentence. In fact, quite the contrary I would say.Ealswythe wrote:I have a question. If there's a stage direction, such as "suddenly", is it OK for me to just suddenly say that line, right after my previous line, eliminating the need for spoken stage direction "suddenly"? Here's the text:
“who will bear you from your dilapidated home and plunge you into the vortex of some great city. [Suddenly.] Have you ever been to Paris?”
I picture the scene like this:
"who will bear you from your dilapidated home and plunge you into the vortex of some great city"
*pregnant pause for a second*
then *suddenly* out of the blue, she speaks the next sentence quite fast. Not fast after the first sentence, but fast after a short pause
so to answer your question: I think the stage direction "suddenly" might get cut out in the end, but I would not glue them together, I would leave a breathing pause. Picture yourself, saying this sentence, then thinking about other matters and suddenly this thought with Paris strikes you and you need to get it out.
Sonia
I was not thinking of shouting out the next sentence, but just just saying it right afte the last. It could be done that way, or it could be done, as you say, after a pause. In the first case, she would have been thinking about suggesting Paris all along, and in the second case, she would be carefully weighing her options, then suddenly coming out with the loaded question. Either way works for me. I’ll leave the decision to the editing process.
Thank you!