Showing posts with label tell not show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tell not show. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Subtlety in Writing

Anyone remember Alan Rickman playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Kevin Costner version of Robin Hood? Was there ever a more over-the-top performance given by a classically trained actor? (So much more enjoyable than the recent Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott version.) Alan received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, and came up to make his speech. He clutched the award in his hands and intoned in that distinctive sonorous voice: "I shall keep this award always, to remind me that subtlety is not everything in acting."

And subtlety is not everything in writing. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the idea of show not tell, that we go all subtle about everything, even stuff that doesn't need to be subtle. I had this with a student last term. The character was doing...something to something, I couldn't quite work out what. It turned out that the mysterious object was a chair, and the character was sitting down on it.

'Why didn't you just say that?' I asked.

'I wanted to be subtle about it, to make the reader work and engage with my writing.'

Hmm. That's fine in principle, but this wasn't an important plot device or an allusion to motivation. Sometimes we can be too clever. Sometimes a chair is a chair, and just gets sat on.

Monday, 14 June 2010

When It's Best to Tell

Jo asked me about the balance between tell and showing, and I thought it was an interesting question because it implies that there's a right amount. But each book will be different, each reader will be different, so you can't fix a quantity.

If there's lots of telling, there is an implication is that the reader can't work it out for themselves. This might be because they are less sophisticated - an early reader, for example - or because the action is so fast paced that there simply isn't time for the reader to keep up. So thrillers tend to have a lot of telling (read Dan Brown for the proof), as do children's books.

Other times when it's good to tell:

- when you can assume the reader knows the mechanics. I've heard this described as sandwich making - you don't have to tell us that making a sandwich involves taking two slices of bread, spreading butter over one side, putting a filling such as cheese on the buttered side of one slice, then placing the other slice on top, you can just write 'she made a cheese sandwich'.

- when you want to get through time quickly. 'The next two weeks passed without the letter arriving.'

- when you want to avoid duplication. You just had a scene with Jemima telling Justin about the new zoo that's opened down the road, when James comes in. Rather than give James and Justin's actual dialogue you might write something like: 'James turned up, so Justin quickly filled him in on what Jemima had just said about the zoo.'

- what's going on is actually rather dull, so you don't want to bore the reader. 'They worked feverishly to get the house ready for the party.'

- the information needs to be there. Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. It's a fact, there's no need to make us play a guessing game as to the exact date, if it's important.

- you want to move the story on. If Mavis is feeling nervous, while it's generally a good idea to give her some actions that would indicate nervousness to most people - nail biting, fidgeting, sitting on the edge of her seat - you might want to get on with the story telling, in which case, just tell us that Mavis is nervous.

There are no absolute rules, so first develop, then use your instincts.

Saturday, 13 March 2010

Time Passing, Passing Time

One of the most quoted bits of advice is to Show not Tell. It's good advice, but there are times when you need to Tell not Show and one of them is when you have to cover a lot of rather unimportant ground quickly.

After the first kiss, all thoughts of going back were abandoned. They decided to eat at the pub, and spent the evening talking about everything and anything: pets they'd had when children, their favourite things to eat, their families - his mad mother, her dodgy brother - favourite films, bands, books. Everything Bertram said Arabella thought was incredibly interesting, and by the time they were walking home hand in hand she was half way to being in love.

In other words, the conversation would have very dull to anyone who wasn't involved, readers included, but we needed to know they enjoyed that first evening together talking about inconsequential stuff. As you do on the first date with someone you like.

Try this exercise. The situation is an interrogation. It goes on for at least ten hours (could be longer) and at the end the interrogated person finally lets slip some useful information.

Write the scene in a maximum of 20 words. Then try 100, then 250. Which is easier?