light speed.

[Cabmonk]

How would you write something like this. Where a main character walks in and sits down. Then cut to the door and have people going in and out sped up. The people slow down again when the next main character walks in. I want to show about 5-10 minutes of action in about 10 second's. Thanks. :)

[refriedwhiskey]

You'd probably do best to just strongly imply the image. You could write something like "Joe takes a seat and watches the door. The next 15 minutes pass in what feels like seconds. Faceless people come and go in a blur -- until MARY walks in, and time stands still."

Or something.

[refriedwhiskey]

Now, in my example, should it be "what feels like seconds," or "what feel like seconds"?

It's bugging me.

[TwoBrad Bradley]

If you're thinking about how this will be edited for the screen, you are still over-thinking this.

Just write the story.

Don't write what you think is THE finished movie in your head. Write so you can see A STORY in your head. That's two different things.

[refriedwhiskey]

Nothing wrong with having a specific image in mind and finding a subtle way to put that image in the reader's head. That's how you write a movie, as opposed to a novel or short story.

[Speezer]

Refried, "what feels like seconds" seems more natural to me. When I get stuck with situations similar to this, I like to go to news.google.com and do a search for both sayings. In this case "what feel like" returns 3 matches, and "what feels like" returns 115 matches.

[refriedwhiskey]

Yeah. Funny thing is, "what feel like" is probably more correct from a grammatical standpoint, since "feel" is referring to "seconds," which is plural. But it doesn't sound as right.

[Salazkin]

I agree that "what feels like seconds" sounds correct, though I can't say which is correct. I'm thinking it's this: seconds is the plural of second, but seconds simply represents a time period (singular). After all, one is not really feeling the "seconds" , but rather feeling or getting an impression of time -- the time span or time period -- a singular form.

It reminds me of the jar full of beans - the beans are multiple and thus plural, but they are contained within the singular jar. When one grammatically modifies the jar of beans, one treats it as singular (The jar of beans rests on the shelf). Perhaps the multiple seconds in the singular time period is analogous. I don't know, but that's my guess.

[Speezer]

Now this is bugging me.

... what feels like seconds... what feels like a second... what feel like seconds...

Sal makes a good observation. I could go either way on this one. But if I was forced to choose, I would say that seconds is considered plural and that I've become so accustomed to hearing and reading the cliche, "what feels like", that the correct phrase, "what feel like seconds", feels wrong.

On the other hand...

Thanks for sharing your problem, refried. ;)

[Deus Ex Machine]

My vote is for "feels like..."

[Ravenlocks01]

The grammatical subject of the sentence is "what," which takes the third-person singular. Hence "what feels like seconds."

[MoreCats]

Raven's correct. "What" in this sentence can be replaced by "it" (it feels like seconds), a third person singular pronoun.

Cats (teaches English for a living so hopes to know something...)

P.S. Though the word "Cats" itself is plural, it refers to a single person, hence.... :rollin