By:
Linda Clare
Editor
Linda Clare continues our examination of Fatal Flaw: # 6 Show, Don’t
Tell. Writers often succumb to this fatal flaw of fiction writing, explaining
and telling and summarizing instead of showing action as it’s happening. (If
you missed the first post, be sure to read it here.)
In
a fictional story, readers imagine that the characters have real lives, just as
they themselves do. But the writer who tries to act out a character’s every
moment will find readers snoozing sooner rather than later. We’re often told to
“show, don’t tell.” So when is showing actually the less effective choice?
The
Usual Routine
Most
of the time, a character’s routine is not crucial to the story. Habits such as
hearing the alarm clock, shuffling into the kitchen for that first hot mug of
coffee or tea, getting dressed, or other mundane activities may be commonplace
for all of us but rarely make for exciting prose. Readers will assume your
character isn’t running around naked or heading to work without brushing her
teeth—unless being unclothed or unbrushed is important to the story.
By
important, I mean that readers won’t understand the story or will be missing
important information if any of these routines is not acted out. Most of the
time, you can omit entirely any reference to the things we all do every day—from
gargling to gassing up the SUV. If you must mention an action and it’s NOT
crucial, a simple summary will suffice (for example: she brushed her teeth.)
Remember,
you are managing your reader. Whatever you dramatize will appear most important
to your reader. If it’s unimportant or assumed, use a quick summary—or better
yet, leave it out.
Step
by Step
As
you manage readers, you’ll be making decisions on not only which parts of the
story you’ll dramatize (that is, detail in scenes) but how you’ll dramatize
those parts.
.
. .
Read the full
article HERE!
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
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