Showing vs. Telling | A NOVEL Writing Site.com

Characterization, Language usage, Point of View, Showing vs. Telling

Writing Lesson 32 – Let Me Show You How to Show

By Lynn Dean, on April 16th, 2010

“Showing vs. Telling”

We’ve written much about this concept of using vivid action, description, and dialogue to show what’s happening in a story rather than simply telling readers about what happens.

It would be fitting, perhaps, to “show” you an example.

Below is the first paragraph of a scene in my work in progress (wip), More Precious Than [...]

Research, Setting, Showing vs. Telling

Writing Lesson 30 – Write What You Know

By Naomi Musch, on April 2nd, 2010

. . . Or Don’t Know!

When I was a teenager starting to pursue my writing passion, I was constantly bombarded with the adage: write what you know. I found this a little bit frustrating, to say the least. After all, I was about fourteen. What did I know? Very little, I’ll tell you.

Imagine life without [...]

Characterization, Showing vs. Telling

Writing Lesson 29 – Showing Actions and Emotions

By Melinda Evaul, on March 26th, 2010

We all have unique facial expressions and gestures. In a novel, these make each character different. Joe may frown when he’s thinking. Mary may pull her eyebrows together. Tracy might purse her lips and tap a finger against them. You might cross your arms and tap your foot.

We’ve discussed showing vs. telling in several lessons. [...]

Language usage, Showing vs. Telling

Writing Lesson 25 – Use Comparisons to Show

By Naomi Musch, on February 26th, 2010

Using Comparisons Brings Life to Dead Adjectives

Whether you are writing a short story, a novel, or a non-fiction essay, you will need to give description, and often times to do so you will use comparison. It’s been said that “nothing means anything except as compared to something else”. In other words, if you say, “The [...]

Characterization, Goal, Motivation and Conflict, Plotting, Showing vs. Telling

Writing Lesson 12 – Creating Inner Conflict

By Teri Dawn Smith, on November 13th, 2009

Creating Emotion in Writing

Almost every writing class or craft book will tell you the same thing: fiction must create a compelling emotional experience. The problem is these teachers also let you know that if your character cries, the reader probably won’t.

So how do you build this emotion? Simply writing highly emotional phrases such as her [...]