Late night confession

[ailsa_clare]

I really just don't understand what is meant by the writerly adage "show, don't tell". You see it, hear it all the time, but, at the risk of sounding very very stupid, it makes absolutely NO sense to me. All writing is a form of telling; fiction is by definition (unless very radical) telling a story: a writer dictates a narrative, describes a

Comments

[ratzcrackers]

I think you might be over-analyzing it a little. To me, it's always just meant that you shouldn't beat the audience over the head. Don't come right out and say "This is what happened." Paint a picture for them.

Since you're using a HP icon, I'll go with HP as an example. Neville's character can be summarized with "Neville is braver than people give him credit for." But we're never told outright, just given bits and pieces until the final climax. People come to the same conclusion, but it's much more entertaining in story form.

[ailsa_clare]

I think you might be over-analyzing it a little.

You're so not wrong; I spend my life over complicating things and so looking dumb! You're explanation makes a lot of sense... I still don't like the wording but I think I get it more now. Ta :)

[iridescentglow]

Personally, what I'm always trying to do is direct my reader where to look, but pretend really hard that I'm suggesting they look elsewhere. Even though Rob Thomas is a hack, he did deliver my favourite piece of writing advice ever, which is that characters shouldn't say what they mean until they're backed into a corner. What's interesting, I think, is the disconnects, even lies, that obfuscate the truth. I suppose that's what showing, not telling means to me: showing the reader the whole situation, complete with characters who aren't telling the whole truth, and allowing the reader to FIND the truth within all the mess. That's what's fun as a reader: not having everything outlined by what basically amounts to an omniscient narrator.

I think "show, don't tell" is quite a problematic notion and one that many writers have flouted (especially pre-20th century ones). JK Rowling, for one, uses huuuge amounts of expository description, presumably because to dramatize everything would have taken seven more books. Personally, though, I would

[iced_pink]

i've always took it to be on par with "write a lot about a little rather than a little about a lot"... like, explain things rather than describe them.

that's all the help i can offer from my english language AS level sorry!