I was watching last night’s American Idol on TiVo as I drank my first cup of coffee this morning. Cutie sixteen-year-old Aaron Kelly sang a Rascal Flatts song I’d never heard before. (I like country music all right, but I rarely pay much attention to it.) I didn’t catch the title when Ryan Seacrest introduced him, but as Aaron sang the opening verse, my writer’s ears perked up.
It begins, "I can hear the truck tires coming up the gravel road / And it’s not like her to drive so slow, (must be) nothing on the radio / Footsteps on the porch, I hear my doorbell / She usually comes right in…"
These lines demonstrate perfectly the power of Show, Don’t Tell descriptions. There was no doubt in my mind that something was wrong, that “she” was the bearer of bad news. The anticipation I felt and the strong mood those opening words created made the chorus that much more poignant: "Here comes goodbye / Here comes the last time / Here comes the start of every sleepless night / The first of every tear I’m gonna cry."
Showing descriptions pull your readers into the story. By asking your audience to pick up on the important clues sprinkled across each sentence, to connect the dots and reach the correct conclusions, you invite readers to participate in the story. Reader interaction can’t be underestimated. Your readers will become emotionally involved on a deeper level with the characters and plot, which boosts the overall entertainment factor of your work.
When do you concentrate the most on writing showing descriptions? Does it come naturally to you and appear in your first drafts/word vomitting sessions? Or do you comb through your scenes during the revision process and incorporate showing descriptions where you just "told" in the first draft? Or both?
15 comments:
Second draft revisions definitely. In the first draft I'm trying to just get the story out. When I go back, that's when I get to the descriptions. Great post Nicole.
Thanks Anne! (Arg - the spacing gave me a headache for this post!) I love hearing other writers' methods. Thanks for sharing yours!
I use dialogue for that sometimes and character reaction. I still have to remind myself that the reader doesn't need me to spell everything out. Thanks for your post. It was great!
No matter how hard we try we ALWAYS end up having really obnoxious bouts of telling in our first drafts. It usually takes on of our amazing beta readers or our merciless agent to remind us that the reader needs to experience the action. In my opinion, this is one of the hardest things about writing!
Both for me. But at least it's something that i find easy to fix during revisions
Hi ma belle! Merci for your comment and for following me. We do have a lot in common. SO nice.
Thanks for being my friends. I am looking forward to get to know you. I like your post. Very interesting. The one about your daughter is super cute.
www.lechateaudesfleurs.blogspot.com
I've been improving in my showing vs. telling. I used to be worse than I am now. But I read an editing book that encouraged me to resist over-explaining and not assume that my readers were stupid. If I show the right emotions via action and dialogue, I don't need to tell readers how a person is feeling, etc.
There is always a lot of word vomit and telling in my first drafts. My inner editor screams bloody murder and I usually clean some of it up as I'm writing.
Yes, I go back and do that, which I know is a big, ginormous no-no. But it makes me feel better and then I can finish.
I try to cut out most of the telling in the second draft revisions, but there's still some left when I go through it a third time.
Usually I use dialogue and flashback to let some of the stuff that needs telling out. That seems to work most of the time.
well i only write non-fiction and i write like how i talk, maybe a little different. and that prob doesn't answer your question
Great observations, Nicole!
I am a "visual" by nature, so that's definitely reflected in my writing.
As soon as I start writing, I see the "movie" of the story playing in my head and I put it into words, almost like a movie script.
What I also do is imagine that I have a reader who is blind - I have to make this reader see (and feel) what I see, so my writing becomes visual.
Sometimes it comes with the story, other times, I'll fix things when I revise. We can't be perfect all the time. That's what editing is for.
So far this is happening a little in my first draft so I hope to perfect it in my revisions. My current first draft needs to be embellished more so I hope to add more "showing" as I go.
So far this is happening a little in my first draft so I hope to perfect it in my revisions. My current first draft needs to be embellished more so I hope to add more "showing" as I go.
I was just thinking about this today. I keep thinking back to part of my beginning that seems very "tell"y to me. But I'm trying not to get crazed and leave it for now to work on in revisions. "Show don't tell" is repeating like a mantra in my brain right now, though, and I don't know if I can let it be, lol...
I definitely do both. Sometimes I surprise myself with how strong my showing descriptions are while at other times I bow my head in shame. I'd never even heard of "show, don't tell" until I was in college and now I can't imagine ever writing without it pulsating in the back of my mind!
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