"What are you reading, Twilight?"
"A book about the different novel genres and all the tools that can be employed when writing."
"Ooooh, you want to start writing?"
"I would like to. But on this chapter, I'm already a bit stuck..."
"On what?"
"The 4th wall... I don't really get what it is."
"Oh, but that's really simple! I can explain it to you if you want!"
"Really, Pinkie? You know about that?"
"Of course! But first, we need to add a bit of narration."
Twilight frowned, not really catching what the pink one was implying. However, out of curiosity, she closed the book she was handling by magic, and put it on a shelf of the golden oak library.
"What do you mean?" She asked while Pinkie appeared to do nothing, except laughing.
"There, it's a quick one made as an example, but it should be enough." Answered Pinkie.
"But what?"
The unicorn laughed a bit. She knew Pinkie was kind of weird and could not always follow her, but the situation intrigued her, while still being funny for some inexplicable reason.
"The 4th wall, Twilight," expertly explained the party pony, "Is what separates the person looking at you, or reading you, from the story itself. It's a border that allows to keep some kind of logic within the story. Personally, I love it!
"Hmmm," said Twilight, interested, "carry on?"
"For example, for a first-person narrative story, if the narrator was to speak to the reader, that wouldn't really be surprising. It would be harmless 4th-wall breaking."
"So, the 4th wall is broken when you directly speak to the readers themselves?"
"It depends. Overall, it's when you remind the public that they're watching a story. Just like that."
Pinkie then proceeded to turn to and waved at you with a smile, while Twilight was wondering why she was greeting her shelf.
"Hum... I don't think I'm following you..."
The pink one faced her friend again with a big smile, nodding.
"If you didn't understand, just rewind the explanation."
"Rewind the..." repeated Twilight, looking for a hidden sense behind those mysterious words. "That doesn't mean anything!"
"It does!" laughed Pinkie. "Use the scrollbar or the scroll wheel to-"
"Nonononono," interrupted Twilight who was starting to get confused by all of this. "Reformulate, please."
"It's easy, when all your characters stay in their story, without getting out of it, you aren't breaking the fourth wall. As soon as one breaks this rule - whether by knowing something they shouldn't, being anachronistic or by saying something that doesn't make any sense in context, but does for the reader as a reference or similar- then you're breaking the fourth wall."
Twilight frowned, thoughtful.
"For example,"continued Pinkie. "You can notice that I now write fourth, not 4th."
One of the unicorn's eyebrows suddenly went up, contrasting with the second, still furrowed, giving her a face that made the pink one giggle.
"You don't look like you understand."
"Let's say that..." doubted Twilight, who was starting to get a headache. "I think I understand your explanations, but the examples are getting me quite lost..."
"You want me to take another one? I have lots of them!"
"Go for it..." she said, a bit skeptical.
"Imagine that you're reading a comic."
"Yes...?"
"Then, a character suddenly gets out of a box and takes a walk in the white part of the page. Without any reason. There. You got it?
"I think..."
Nevertheless, Twilight didn't understood the link between the previous examples that Pinkie had given. Well, she was Pinkie Pie, after all.
"Exactly!" hopped the pink one.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's me, duh!"
Twilight gave up on trying to understand. She was already having a hard time with Pinkie's explanations to-
"Oh? You didn't get it? Oops, sorry, I cut off the narration."
It's okay, Pinkie. Except that Twilight was understanding the words of the pink one less and less, and her face couldn't stop changing expressions, without knowing which one to take, clearly.
"Let me make a attempt," asked the scholar.
"Be my guest, they're begging for it!"
"Who's- Forget it! So, for example, if in chapter five of a story, a character says something like Oh, but that's exactly like in the chapter before! then..."
"He just broke the fourth wall, you understood!" rejoiced Pinkie, happy to have been helpful to her friend.
"I sea..."
The pinkie one giggled, with an inelegant snore.
"You put an a instead of ane in I see."
"It's just a mis-"
Twilight stopped, her mouth stirring some gibberish as she was trying to find an explanation.
"Pinkie, you can't hear the difference, how do you know I made a mistake?"
She calmed her laugh, negligently swaying her hoof.
"Oh, Twilight, you still have so much to learn about the fourth wall! For example, do you know why it's called that?"
"Well..." thought the unicorn. "If we take your example with a comic, we can consider that the box itself is a wall, can't we?"
"Exactly! In fact, it comes from theater. The fourth wall is the stage, and behind is the audience. Originally, it was broken when an actor directly addressed the audience."
"Okay..."
"You're using a lot of ellipses Twilight, you're still not getting it?"
"I do, I do. I'm just thinking, that's it."
"Oh, sorry, it's not easy to tell the difference. If only the narration was doing its job properly!"
Sorry, Pinkie. I just thought that this story was getting to its end.
"Duuh, try to keep up!"
Meanwhile, Twilight was keeping her surprised face, asking herself what kind of flour Pinkie had used in her cupcakes this morning.
"Normal flour, why?"
"H-How do you-!?" suddenly panicked the unicorn. "Can you read minds!?"
"Of course no, silly, I'm just reading. But since the narration seems to have had enough with this story, I'm going to leave you Twilight."
Twilight looked at her friend going out of the library, with the mouth slightly open in total bewilderment.
"Your work is done narration, it's over."
This is a brilliant little story, I'll try to get back in the morning and drop a comment on the grammar.
A couple of quick things though:
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Could you give an example for the first thing ? In French, we have very different rules for speech-marks (I don't even fully master them in my mother tongue) so an example could really help me there.
Reading it out loud is what I do most of the time, especially for translation. But while my level in english isn't that bad, I still say some stuff that aren't right.
Thanks for reading. And the compliment. I was affraid this would be a total grammar catastrophe.
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I’ll give a full example with your story as context later in this comment, but here’s a short one:
“This… thing,” said Jacques, his face contorted in utmost disgust,“how is it even alive?”
The internal clause here is between the pieces of the spoken sentence. Since the sentence didn’t end before the narration, commas are used to separate this clause.
Now onto the comment proper
It’s far more natural to say “I’ll explain it for you” as you are giving someone your time, and this is not a physical object. Your version is, however, still grammatically correct.
Here the “she” should be capitalised as the clause within the quotation marks has been closed. Also, here it should just be “except laugh” as except pairs with the infinitive, not the imperfect.
“as an example” as Pinkie is not giving the example an example, she is showing an example to Twilight. Also, “enough” should be followed by a full stop and “Answered” should be capitalised.
This is the first passage where the pronouns get a bit unclear, so let's tidy them up:
“kind of weird, and could not always follow her,” the “she” reads like it's describing Pinkie, rather than Twilight.
“whilst still being funny for some inexplicable reason” The first part was in perfect tense when it should have been in imperfect (continuous) tense. The article “an” is specific, whilst “inexplicable” is very much not, so the article “some” is used instead.
I’m just going to rewrite this, I can explain the issues in a separate comment later if you would prefer.
“The 4th wall, Twilight,” expertly explained the party pony, “Is what separates the person looking at you, or reading about you, from the story itself. It’s a border that allows the author to maintain some kind of logic within the story. Personally, I love it.”
The dreaded full-stop after interested, “interested, ‘carry on?’ “.
“It” should be replaced with “that” to include the entire previous statement, and the article “a” is unrequired, as “harmless” provides both adverb and article.
“Reader” fits better as a plural in both these lines, and gendering the reader is redundant so “readers themselves?” and “public that they’re watching”, especially since “that” is always coded as plural.
“Proceed” should be in past tense (“proceeded”) and “waved” does not contain an “i”. “Why she was” makes it sound like Twilight is waving at the shelf, try: “why Pinkie was”.
This “didn’t” is present imperfect, “understand”.
“Sense” is misspelt. A comma should be used after Twilight as a new clause has begun. “It” is singular and therefore does not describe the whole statement, “That”. (A full stop before the second piece of direct speech is correct, as the first clause was closed with ellipsis.)
I'm going to rewrite this utilising en-dashes. This is due to the excessive use of commas muddling the course of the sentence.
"It's easy. When all your characters stay in their story, without getting out of it, you aren’t breaking the fourth wall. As soon as one breaks this rule – whether by knowing something they shouldn't, being anachronistic, or by saying something that doesn't make any sense in context but does for the reader as a reference or similar – then you're breaking the fourth wall."
“Eyebrows” is always plural, unless a character is missing one. An eyebrow doesn’t “frown” it “furrows”. “Giggles” is a plural noun, you are looking for the verb “giggle”. Additionally, one makes a face, rather than being “given” one.
Again, like a face, you “make” an example, rather than “take” one.
“Understood” is past perfect, you want the imperfect “understand”. “Between the previous” is rather ambiguous, try “that and the”.
Direct speech is generally in the present tense. “You didn’t get it?”
The "that" after "except" is unnecassary. Also, try just using “Pinkie” rather than “the pink one”.
Try is a verb, so you just “try”, she could, however, “make an attempt” if that flows better.
Here her words should be in past tense: “you couldn’t hear” “how did you know I’d”
^box
"
“Ellipsis” should be plural. “ellipses”
Contrary to all sense, “it’s” is a contraction, not a possessive. You want “its”
“Have enough” is missing a few articles, it seems excessive but the correct phraseology is “have had enough of this”.
I hope that’s helped, it may be slightly overcomplicated though. An easy way to get your grammar checked is to just switch whatever software you're using to english, or any other language it is being translated into.
Please ask for further clarification if you need any.
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Thank you for taking the time to do this. I'll make sure to do the appropriate corrections.