Saturday, April 11, 2009

Article on Showing vs. Telling

I have no idea why I didn't share this long ago. I should have, because I'm proud of it. But apparently my writing, kids, blog, house stuff, and countless other things made me forget about that. Plus, I'm a terrible self-promoter. :)

Earlier in the year, I was invited to write an article about revision for NaNoEdMo, or National Novel Editing Month. My article is proudly displayed with the likes of JA Konrath (author of 8 novels and over 60 articles and short stories, and his blog is the fabulous A Newbie's Guide to Publishing) and Dave King (co-author of Self Editing for Fiction Writers). I'm quite proud to be in such company. :)

I wrote about showing vs. telling regarding revision. Go here if you'd like to read it.

13 comments:

Jennifer said...

That was a fantastic article. A very nice read, and very informative. Thanks for sharing it!

C.J. Raymer said...

Great article!

Brenda said...

This is the one thing I always have problems with...verbally telling a story, I seem to be able to 'show'...but putting it on paper I seem to go into telling mode...sigh...Great article!

Mary Witzl said...

That's a great article, and I really like the examples you've given.

I've been combing over my ms for more years than I can stand to think about, and even now I keep finding phrases and whole sentences that are just wooden -- you read them and feel nothing. Once I put in the light glinting off bottles, the crunch of sand underfoot, the prose zings. It's like the difference between dead wood and new growth. Wish I'd put all that stuff in to begin with...

Tabitha said...

Jen - thanks! And thanks for visiting! :)

CJ - thanks! :)

Brenda - thanks! I have trouble translating from my head to the paper, too. I'm sure we're not the only ones. :)

Mary - it's all in the word choice. Choose an active word that invokes one of the five senses, and your reader will hear/see/feel/taste/smell what you want them to. Then your whole story will zing. :)

C.R. Evers said...

Wow! That's awesome! Congrats on a great article!dinhim

Jim Danielson said...

Great article! Your timing couldn't be better. Next month's Southlands SCBWI-Illinois meeting is about Chapter 1 in SELF EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS. In case you don't remember -- it's Show/Tell. I shall reference your article in the presentation. THANKS!!!

BTW, I'll be searching your blog for info for chapters 2 and 3 too. :-)

PJ Hoover said...

I love it! Thanks for posting the link!!!!! And of course, congratulations!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Great article! I'm about to do this with my current WIP. Thanks for the pointers. :D

Marina said...

Congrats, Tabitha. That's great company to be keeping! Good article, too, with some useful examples. It seems as if "show, don't tell" should be such easy advice to take, yet somehow ... it isn't!

Bish Denham said...

Wonderful article, concise, to the point and easily understandable. Thanks!

Bish Denham said...

Tabitha I have nominated you for the Lemonade Stand Award!

Tabitha said...

Christy - thanks!! :)

Jim - glad the timing worked so well! And thanks so much for the mention. :) I'm quite flattered, you know. :) Hope you find what you're looking for for the next chapters, even if you don't find it here. :)

PJ - thanks! It's very exciting, even though I forgot to mention it. Life just gets busy, ya know?

Marina - yeah, it does seem like asy advice to follow. But choosing the right words isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. :)

Bish - thanks! And thanks so much for the award! :)