Writers are taught "show, don't tell." If we tell the readers they are simply being informed, but if we show our readers by painting a picture then their imagination is piqued and they become emotionally invested.
Emotional investment is what keeps the pages turning.
Telling is easy. "He was understandably angry. He left the room in a hurry and she could hear him breaking things in a rage."
Showing takes a bit more effort. " He glared at her, his face unreadable except for the flare in his nostrils. He turned away and strode into the other room. She watched his reflection in the window, his shoulders tight. There was a sudden crash and she watched the debris of his attack fly into view."
~ Notice how I didn't use the word "angry" or "mad".
Both ways portray the same thing, but showing draws you in and almost makes you a part of the scene.
Showing makes your characters more vivid, which adds depth to the story.
Showing brings your characters to life.
Thoughtshots are a smart way to show the story. A thoughtshot is simply a look into what the character is (or was) feeling or thinking. They can be used in either fiction or non fiction, and place events in context.
Thoughtshots give the reader a reason to be interested and allow an emotional investment to grow.
Thoughtshots are flashbacks, memories, flashaheads, and internal dialog.
Internal Dialogue is the speech the character has with himself. He hears it, the reader hears it, but the other characters have no idea what is going on.
Flashbacks are images of an event that play out so we can know the history of the character.
Flashaheads show readers something in the future- it has not happened yet. It can also be the daydreams of the character.
Thoughtshots raise the emotional level of a scene and let us into the characters thoughts so we know the truth.
They can also be used together- flashaheads with internal dialogue.
The thoughtshots should be from the viewpoint of the main character, and should only be used to move the story forward- it should not be filled with fluff- only put the good stuff. They should reveal the inner workings of the character and have an impact on the plot.
Use italics * * to show thoughtshots.
Thoughtshots should be considered a piece to the whole story puzzle. And use them sporadically.
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Good advice indeed!
What I found to be the case for me on Steemit is that others' articles inspire me in a roundabout way. When I read an article which I find myself capable of adding a decent comment to, I finally find that my comment is written in a form that I can turn it into an article, with some minor changes here and there.
Yesterday I too wanted to write a new article (I have about two dozens left accumulated over many years), but I found no inspiration. Then, I had this idea of skimming over my comments, and one hour later I had 15 new articles that now add on to the two dozens I had already.
I released one yesterday, and I really guess it is the mind barrier which always wants to make it perfect. But what is perfect in our view might be received differently by others. So I just dropped my article without much expectation or thought, and it doesn't perform any worse than my others :)
And: people's attention span is relatively short anyways these days, so it does not need to be as long as we sometimes might think :)
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I've found that Steemit comments, both mine and those I read, are excellent writer's block extinguishers for me as well!
Your absolutely correct- these days people want their information fast and concise.
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I agree with you that we don't have to tell them but show the readers, this way it makes a greater impact on the reader and your writing becomes more effective.
Short paragraphs are awesome because they make the reader feel as if there’s less to try to information to tackle and creates a flow. This is why newspapers use short paragraphs, there’s a better chance that the reader will read the entire article.
Writing is visual , it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read.
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You're exactly right. Book publishers won't even read your manuscript unless they see a lot of "white space."
Thanks for the reminder!
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Your example makes me think of some of the scenes I wrote in my fanfic. In later stories. I mention how lightning flickered at a said character's fingertips hehe I like using flashheads, as premonitions, visions and such. With magic in the mix, it makes it so much easier. Especailly when one of the races are telepathic.
Sometimes I can be too explanatory. That's why for SD I have an editor. I'm almost ready for my big reveal about it, by the way. My artist is painting the picture and will be able to complete it very soon!
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Oh my goodness! I'm so excited! I can't wait!!!
It must be an amazing feeling :). You've come so far!
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Oh for sure! I'm formatting everything, getting confused about it all. But I did the e-book and that went well. The Appendices took forever to do, but that was my first time ever. So when I sat down to do the actual novel itself, my Table of Contents was smooth sailing. (The clickable type.) I did a template in Scribus today. And installed my fonts. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the actual novel itself. Who know how long that will take. Amazon has this great page that allows you to enter the size of your print book, and the number of pages in your formatted version and it spits out a template for the cover that you can download and then use in Photoshop. That makes my life so much easier.
I just need to figure out most of the places I want to publish the e-book version because apparently, different stores require different e-book cover sizes, grrrr. But what I'm thinking of doing is creating a cover template, all complete, that I can copy into different sized projects. That way I do it once, but some versions look a bit cropped, and it doesn't affect the main image or text.
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That's awesome of Amazon, seems super helpful!
One thing you can take comfort in is that once you do this you'll always know how :)
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Oh for sure. These are definitely useful skills for future projects.
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Great read @arbitrarykitten. Its so awesome how a small manipulation of words can change the entire outcome and internal visual.
Hope you are well sweets xxx
Have a super duper Thursday!!
HUGS
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Thanks Jaynie!
Hugs right back at ya 😆
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XOXOXOXOXO
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V v v very nice picture.
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Thanks Habib! Wonderful meeting you, and welcome to Steemit :)
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I've been reading certain books with the aim of improving my writing skills. One recurring thing is the "Show don't tell" instruction, how most times, it's the actions themselves that pilot your scenes and not your descriptions of them.
Your take on this has been a quite helpful annex to what i've learnt so far!
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I'm so happy to hear that!
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and then there's exposition ....
the writer needs to know how to use all the tools in her bag
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Exactly. You can learn all the tricks, but if you don't know how to pull the rabbit out of the hat, well, then that poor bunny suffers in a satiny, claustrophobic hell.
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