LittleGumball
Slammin' Salmon
So I'm taking an online creative writing class, and the textbook for it had something cool that I thought that I would share with you all. (textbook is Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway. Just in case anyone is wondering. c: )
To paraphrase, many beginning writers name the emotions in their story (ex: eerie feeling in the air) rather than letting the reader feel them. So instead of talking about how the character feels lonely, the writer should instead show the reader how said character's pets and the TV program aren't the same as human interaction. The book elaborates on this by giving an example of a student's writing where they describe a character as stubborn and indifferent. Then it gives suggestions on how to improve it, since there are multiple possibilities on why the character is this way and the reader must be able to judge the character for theirself. So instead of saying "the character is stubborn and indifferent," the book offers up a quick paragraph of a passively rebellious child rejecting both the luxuries her parents offer her and societal norms, then it gives a completely different one where her rich father takes her family to another country and she chooses to stay inside the hotel, being "entirely ungrateful" by reading instead of sightseeing.
I don't know if anyone in English class has been taught showing vs. telling, but this basically drove that point home better than any teacher I ever had could.
So yeah, a tip. Hope it helps some of you out like it did for me.
To paraphrase, many beginning writers name the emotions in their story (ex: eerie feeling in the air) rather than letting the reader feel them. So instead of talking about how the character feels lonely, the writer should instead show the reader how said character's pets and the TV program aren't the same as human interaction. The book elaborates on this by giving an example of a student's writing where they describe a character as stubborn and indifferent. Then it gives suggestions on how to improve it, since there are multiple possibilities on why the character is this way and the reader must be able to judge the character for theirself. So instead of saying "the character is stubborn and indifferent," the book offers up a quick paragraph of a passively rebellious child rejecting both the luxuries her parents offer her and societal norms, then it gives a completely different one where her rich father takes her family to another country and she chooses to stay inside the hotel, being "entirely ungrateful" by reading instead of sightseeing.
I don't know if anyone in English class has been taught showing vs. telling, but this basically drove that point home better than any teacher I ever had could.
So yeah, a tip. Hope it helps some of you out like it did for me.