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The Basics
Tell,
Don't Show
The first
rule of
writing is show, don't tell. But let's face it, if
we
showed everything, our novels would run tens
of thousands of pages,
and readers would die of exhaustion. So what
do we do? We must decide
what information the reader needs. Just
because we know everything
about our characters and just because we spent
weeks researching, it
isn't necessary to share everything we know
with our reader. We must
choose only the details we need to
authenticate our story and omit
everything else.
NARRATIVE is
telling the reader
what happens. This is useful when acting out
the story (by dialogue and
action) does nothing to further our
understanding of the characters or
plot.
For example,
does the
reader really need to see every action during
a meal, or would the
scene work just as well if used narrative. "We ate dinner
in silence,
the way we always did. The only sound was
the scraping of utensils
across the plate."
EXPOSITION is
explaining why
something happened or giving the reader
background information. There
are a number of ways to use exposition in our
writing. A writer can use
direct exposition through the thoughts of the
main character. Or the
writer might choose to use indirect
exposition. To do this, we use
items like a purse or a handkerchief to
indirectly tell the reader the
gender of a person.
One of the
most
difficult and most crucial elements in
story-telling is knowing when to
give play-by-play action and when to back off
and summarize. Beginning
writers often try to cram the background
information of a story into
the opening pages of the work rather than
allowing the story to come
out naturally. Evaluate each scene to
determine whether these tools can
make it better. If a scene doesn't hold your
interest, maybe it's
better to summarize it in a sentence or two
and go on to something more
important.
In a pivotal
scene
that is critical to our understanding of how
the character reacts in a
given situation, be especially careful of
which techniques you use.
Give us action, give us dialogue, and let us
experience and savor every
single moment of it.
Play around
with
narrative and exposition. Find ways to speed
up the pace of your
writing by using them, but keep in mind that
both techniques have the
potential to bog down your writing, to slow
the pace, and to bore the
reader. You must continue to be creative and
utilize your character's
voice through narrative and exposition. For
help with this or any other
technique, hire one of our editors.
For
additional
tips, worksheets, and discussions, order your
own copy of the
Inspiration
for Writers Tips and Techniques Workbook.
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