Showing and Telling by Laurie Alberts
“Show don’t tell” is a familiar adage to many writers, beginners or experienced. Laurie Alberts is here to explain what each term means and when ‘telling’ is actually the more effective course of action. The book has a lot of useful information for writers, with many examples.
First, Ms. Alberts describes scenes, in which things happen. She brings many examples from a wide variety of books where showing was done well, then analyzes how supporting details worked to draw the reader into the story. She also brings sample paragraphs to contrast bland vs. vibrant ‘showing’ so that the reader will understand why details are so important.
Ms. Alberts shows how the writer must choose which details to include: to draw the reader in, to show a rising level of tension, to set up upcoming drama or reveal past incidents which intensify the current scene.
Time is a detail element as well - something always happens, something is constantly wished for, and something is always annoying. Other things happen right now - in the scene. How can a writer use details to show that an ongoing occurrence? For example: a father feels constant disappointment at his son’s lack of get-up-and-go, which will set the reader up for the scene where Dad is angry that his son skipped a s job opportunity in order to play in the rock band. If this is the story of a boy and his band making money over the summer to cover their costs and bank a little, more, the scene - and its supporting details - will be different than if this is Dad’s book, where he expect his son to take his place In the family firm.
The section on scenes closes with a chapter on common errors that creep into a scene, such as stilted dialogue, highly detailed scenes which fail to move the plot along, and credibility issues where a character acts for reasons no one can believe.
Telling is summarizing events which don’t need the details of a scene. Telling should not be bland - it can contain as many concrete details as a scene.
Telling gives the writer a chance to show what the character is thinking, which affects how the reader emotionally connects to the scene and character. If Joe Blow gives five bucks to the beggar outside McDonalds - does he then spend the next five blocks annoyed because he thought it was a single? Or had he spent the last half hour over a coffee in McD worried about his kid in the hospital, and did he therefore choose to give extra charity to influence his karma? Same five dollars to the beggar, but the reader feels differently about Joe.
Ms. Alberts concludes this book with a section of Showing & Telling, where she shows how the two techniques can be blended for a book that draws the reader into the story.
Was this a good book? Certainly it had useful information, but somehow the presentation was deadly boring. All the advice was good, the examples given ran the gamut from gripping to dull, but this book got ‘lost’ under some paperwork for three weeks, and I was not motivated to finish it until I read all the other books in my stack. Other books on writing were better able to hold my attention.
First, Ms. Alberts describes scenes, in which things happen. She brings many examples from a wide variety of books where showing was done well, then analyzes how supporting details worked to draw the reader into the story. She also brings sample paragraphs to contrast bland vs. vibrant ‘showing’ so that the reader will understand why details are so important.
Ms. Alberts shows how the writer must choose which details to include: to draw the reader in, to show a rising level of tension, to set up upcoming drama or reveal past incidents which intensify the current scene.
Time is a detail element as well - something always happens, something is constantly wished for, and something is always annoying. Other things happen right now - in the scene. How can a writer use details to show that an ongoing occurrence? For example: a father feels constant disappointment at his son’s lack of get-up-and-go, which will set the reader up for the scene where Dad is angry that his son skipped a s job opportunity in order to play in the rock band. If this is the story of a boy and his band making money over the summer to cover their costs and bank a little, more, the scene - and its supporting details - will be different than if this is Dad’s book, where he expect his son to take his place In the family firm.
The section on scenes closes with a chapter on common errors that creep into a scene, such as stilted dialogue, highly detailed scenes which fail to move the plot along, and credibility issues where a character acts for reasons no one can believe.
Telling is summarizing events which don’t need the details of a scene. Telling should not be bland - it can contain as many concrete details as a scene.
Telling gives the writer a chance to show what the character is thinking, which affects how the reader emotionally connects to the scene and character. If Joe Blow gives five bucks to the beggar outside McDonalds - does he then spend the next five blocks annoyed because he thought it was a single? Or had he spent the last half hour over a coffee in McD worried about his kid in the hospital, and did he therefore choose to give extra charity to influence his karma? Same five dollars to the beggar, but the reader feels differently about Joe.
Ms. Alberts concludes this book with a section of Showing & Telling, where she shows how the two techniques can be blended for a book that draws the reader into the story.
Was this a good book? Certainly it had useful information, but somehow the presentation was deadly boring. All the advice was good, the examples given ran the gamut from gripping to dull, but this book got ‘lost’ under some paperwork for three weeks, and I was not motivated to finish it until I read all the other books in my stack. Other books on writing were better able to hold my attention.