Jensen and the Ghost of Jourdan Dunn – How To

Guide to Better Understand the World of Jensen and Jou

Hello friends,

I have decided to make a guide to help some readers better understand my style of writing for the story of Jensen and the Ghost of Jourdan Dunn.

I have had a couple of friends tell me they were confused with who was talking, and who’s point of view was I writing in, etc.
So here is a little how to to help anyone out there that might be confused when reading the story and put off by the weird style, and perhaps you guys can help me better my style in return… please any suggestions, leave them in the comment section. I welcome constructive criticism.

Okay, so the story is actually told by pictures.
The pictures are meant to convey the feelings; thoughts; and actions of the characters. I might not be successful at that always, it is kind of limiting with The Sims to do that, but I try my hardest to express what my characters are feeling and thinking through the pictures.
Then, there is only dialogue, monologue, and first person narration. I do not have descriptive prose.
The idea behind it was not to make it like a comic book in which all the character’s dialogue are inside a bubble or a square, as well as their thoughts; in some comic books (especially Japanese) they also include sounds of the ambiance, like if there is a car driving by, they will describe the sound with a word, etc. This writing style is not like that.
It is only through pictures that any of that is convey, described, etc… the dialogues, monologues, and first person narration, tell the rest of the story that cannot be conveyed through pictures.

Now, on to who is talking and when;
So there are three major characters: Jense; Jourdan; Ji-Sang. Yes! The three have names that start with a J… that was a mistake I made and I cannot change their names now because I just don’t see them with a different name.
Okay, so Jensen is obviously the main character of the story, thus he will be in all the chapters regardless of who’s point of view is being used. I use the point of view of the three major characters. However, their point of view does not intertwine. Meaning, I dedicate a chapter for one point of view only.
If I’m writing from Jensen’s point of view, all the narration done in first person will be Jensen’s for that chapter.

When you are reading their thoughts is when the characters are in first person narration. Is as if they were talking to you directly and telling you what is happening through their eyes. However, they are not talking out-loud. They are thinking what is being expressed. Thus, making it a narration vs a monologue which would be something expressed out-loud by a character but to no one but themselves.

Dialogues are easy to understand because we all know dialogues are inside quotation marks, right? So when a character is talking, if the paragraph is not ended by a quotation mark, it means the character is still the one talking in the paragraph that follows immediately after.
If there is a long pause after a character has said something, the ending quotation marks will be there regardless of whether the same character is the one speaking the next dialogue or not.

Here are some examples:
So this is an example of the same character speaking, but the dialogue is ended with the quotation mark because there is a pause after the character first speaks;

“What is it?”

“Dad! I would like to be left alone. Say what you have to say and then leave.”

The reason for this is because if I were to incorporate descriptive prose, Maria (the character speaking) would have said: “What is it?” and I would have followed with a paragraph of descriptive prose, then after she would have said: “Dad! I would like to be left alone…”
But because I use only pictures to describe my story, then the picture of her father standing that is shown between the dialogues is the descriptive prose. Thus, her dialogue paragraphs all have to end in quotation marks.

Now, and example of a dialogue not ending in quotation marks to signal the character is still talking even when there is a new paragraph started:


“I’m going to the basement. Don’t wait up for me.”

Maria’s father is talking to his mother; in this sequence of pictures you see that he calls his mother, and immediately after he says he is going to the basement… etc. So, not ending the dialogue with a quotation mark implies that what follows after, is said immediately, or in the same sequence of event. Is a way to make the reader see that there would be no descriptive prose in between the dialogues, regardless of there being a picture. Because the picture is also accompanied by dialogue.

After he says he is going to the basement and not to wait for him, I follow with a monologue.
Notice I ended his dialogue to his mother with quotation marks, and started his monologue right after, which does not end with quotation marks because every paragraph is said by him, until the last paragraph which ends with quotation marks to signify end of his speech, and there would not be any descriptive prose if I was writing in the normal style of writing fiction:

“I’m sure she was not a vision. That idiot doesn’t even know how valuable she is. Unless…

“Unless she is related to one of the boys? But how?

“And if so, does this mean? …

“The machine…”

Now, some times you will find that a character is speaking but the picture that accompanies the dialogue is not of that character, how do I convey that? The dialogue will be in italics.


“Just show up.”

“I know you’re there, I can feel your energy.”

“Are we like… a medium now?”

In this sequence of pictures I have pictures as “descriptive prose” – of course the reader would have to formulate their own interpretation of what is being shown; and those pictures are followed by dialogue from Jensen (the character in the pictures) Notice the dialogue is ended with quotation marks in every paragraph, because there is pause after he speaks first, and then there is another paragraph under his second dialogue which is a dialogue but is not what he says, it is said by a character that isnt shown (presumably the person he is asking to show up), thus it is in italics.

So now that we have all of that out of the way, I have to tell you guys that I enjoy being creative with this story and that I have placed every picture very strategically to tell you what I don’t say in words.
It is very important to look at every picture and analyze what is being shown because that is the only way you will understand what I don’t explain with descriptive prose.

This style of writing is weird, but has been done before by other writers and I in NO WAY take credit for inventing it… NAH. I just like to be very artistic and also love the idea of allowing the reader to formulate their own opinion of what is happening.
Is the reader seeing what I want him to see?
Also, it allows for use of imagination which is part of playing The Sims!

Hope this guide helped you.
Remember to leave any suggestions and/or criticism in the comment section.


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