tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321339472666778123.post6934337605994403593..comments2024-02-03T13:09:38.313+00:00Comments on Mirabilis - Year of Wonders: "Show don't tell" - the writing rule that causes most confusionLeo Hartashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417174942647091006noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321339472666778123.post-81562696406367935422012-08-23T12:08:55.888+01:002012-08-23T12:08:55.888+01:00Good points, Kathryn. Without seeing the whole sto...Good points, Kathryn. Without seeing the whole story, it's not really possible to judge how much detail and how many scenes are necessary. What we can say is that the reader must be shown the route between the story beats, which I think of as like sections of a bridge between the supports which are the new stages of the characters' situation or development.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321339472666778123.post-80307467550210382362012-06-07T10:53:05.841+01:002012-06-07T10:53:05.841+01:00This is a great post because it picks up on many o...This is a great post because it picks up on many of the subtleties of show not tell that writers and editors often miss. Yes, it's not as simple as just turning everything into a scene (being selective is crucial). And what's particularly interesting is the way you highlight how showing can be used effectively in narrative summary (often cited as the opposite of showing). <br /><br />That said, I think the example above about Gustav and his (wife? girlfriend?) is worth unpacking a bit more. This is presumably a major character (because it's our narrator) undergoing a fundamental change because of another character's desires and expectations. The prose is elegant but very brief; it gives the sense that this change has been equally brief (or, perhaps, easy to implement). It also gives no sense of how the narrator feels about having had to make this adjustment to her behaviour. <br /><br />Whilst I agree that using one scene to show this would feel contrived (because it would suffer from the same problem, that of implying that the change is sudden and unambiguous) a viable alternative might be to weave the changes in her behaviour (and character?) and her feelings about them in only very gradually, allowing the reader to sense that she is being influenced by increments and gauge her reactions to the process. <br /><br />Having waffled on about the above, I also think there's a necessary distinction between short story writing where it's crucial to convey things succinctly and elegantly, and novel writing, where you have more space to develop characters and relationships gradually. <br /><br />All very interesting - thanks for the discussion points!Kathryn Pricehttp://cornerstones.co.uknoreply@blogger.com