Late night confession
I really just don't understand what is meant by the writerly adage "show, don't tell". You see it, hear it all the time, but, at the risk of sounding very very stupid, it makes absolutely NO sense to me. All writing is a form of telling; fiction is by definition (unless very radical) telling a story: a writer dictates a narrative, describes a character, constructs a world for the reader to let their imagination run riot in. When I started thinking about this tonight, I thought "writing is telling, tv is showing, surely?" but I don't think TV/ film is showing: to me the word "show" implies an almost documentary-like detachment from the subject, it implies presentation of the whole, not judgement and selection. Whereas (in my opinion) most literature, tv and film is structured around TELLING you where you look: in books through words that help your mind's eye build a picture, in television/ film via mis-en-scene, cinematography, cuts. This is making me sound like I really believe in auteur driven art :/
But I guess the point of that broadly incomprehensible babble is: what the fuck does "show, don't tell" mean? I don't want to feel stupid and like a bad aspiring writer any more! Or for that matter a poor reader; first I get castigated for reading to fast (apparently the consensus on fast-readers is that they don't really "see" the text, aren't reading it "right") and then I don't notice the big showing parade.
I am so very very tired, so I apologise if this makes little to no sense.
But I guess the point of that broadly incomprehensible babble is: what the fuck does "show, don't tell" mean? I don't want to feel stupid and like a bad aspiring writer any more! Or for that matter a poor reader; first I get castigated for reading to fast (apparently the consensus on fast-readers is that they don't really "see" the text, aren't reading it "right") and then I don't notice the big showing parade.
I am so very very tired, so I apologise if this makes little to no sense.