This was an interesting writing problem that occurred when I was editing a scene in my forthcoming horror novel, which has the working title ‘Deadly Skittles.’

Quote: ‘He watched with disbelief as a doctor, no, two doctors, no , doctors appeared in the doorway that led into the bowling alley, and ponderously moved towards the corpse of the dead Skittle as if they were doctors in a normal hospital who were making their rounds to check their patients.

Finally, they reached it, and stood over it for about a minute, inspecting it and quietly discussing it among themselves.’  End of quote.

The scene is viewed from the point of view of someone who is about fifty yards away from them, which means that he can’t possibly hear what they are discussing.

What are they discussing?

It’s pretty certain that they are discussing the corpse,

I mean, you wouldn’t normally look at a corpse and discuss the weather, or what you’re planning to cook for dinner that night, especially as the head of the corpse has disintegrated into a mass of bloody brain matter.

Even so, let’s face it, it’s impossible to know what people are discussing in a situation like this when they are speaking quietly and are about fifty yards away.

A few seconds later the solution came to me.

The word apparently came to the rescue.

Instead of writing quote: ‘Finally, they reached it, and stood over it for about a minute, inspecting it and quietly discussing it among themselves.’ End of quote.

I wrote: quote: ‘Finally, they reached it, and stood over it for about a minute, inspecting it and apparently quietly discussing it among themselves.’ End of quote.

I’m never quite sure whether I’m being pedantic when I’m tackling in writing problems like this.

Surely it’s obvious that they’re discussing the corpse.

Or is it?

Maybe they really are discussing what they’re planning to cook for dinner that night.