recounting events

[juelz4sure]

I looked for another thread to find the answer but i was unable to find anything, anyways my protagonist is sitting in front of a council and needs to recount what has happened to him thus far making up of half the story is the best way to do this as follows:

There was a tangible hatred in the room, when the elderly man stood up abruptly cutting both of them off demanding everyone’s attention. He was a short man with gray hair, and a distinguished goatee. His teeth were brown and decrepit as he smiled a crooked smile “Tell your story son.”

***​

or is there a better way of doing this (this is just a rough draft I know it still needs a lot of work but the bones are good )​

 

[Warren_Paul]

I'm not sure if I fully understand what your asking here Juelz? Do you want to know how he should retell the story, or if he should skip over it? Or just the lead up to telling the story? Which could be any number of things...


I remember Ian Irvine's A View from the Mirror had a scene where the character had to recall her story so far in a court trial, lying through half of it.

 

[JandenHale]

Yeah, I'm with Warren Paul, not sure exactly what you're asking for. Is your character recounting events leading up to this point, that the reader already has experienced the whole of? If so, I wouldn't have them sit through the whole thing again. I think this is even something Stephen King mentions in his writing book. So you'd essentially tell how he told the story (He recounted the events...blah blah) and sprinkle in some choice sections where he might say things in a way that isn't boring for the reader to hear a second time. Or yeah, like what Warren said above, how that character changed the story. So it's going to be different/interesting so the reader doesn't get bored.

 

[juelz4sure]

I just want to skip over it since I feel it would be to repetitive(he would have to recount half the book thus far), so I can jump to the under world where the secondary protagonist is at right now

 

[Warren_Paul]

So this:

There was a tangible hatred in the room, when the elderly man stood up abruptly cutting both of them off demanding everyone’s attention. He was a short man with gray hair, and a distinguished goatee. His teeth were brown and decrepit as he smiled a crooked smile “Tell your story son.”

Is where the scene ends?

I'd probably add one last line then, describing the characters' reactions to the elderly man and that he actually did start to say the story and leave it at that.

 

[juelz4sure]

yes that's would be where the scene ends, thanks warren for the help.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

If you want to skip over it, I'd do a scene break then and start the next one with an action to show he's finished:

He sat back and waited to see their reaction....