Show Not Tell
posted by mjd 
in HM, Reading, Writings | 3 Comments »
3 Comments »
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Thanks for posting this. I unfortunately have a problem with the “show not tell” thing. So I will definitely listen or read the story and compare it to your work. But honestly I kind of want people to recognize a little gray area. Maybe I’m just trying rationalize my bad habits. But I think being able to write in a mythic/fable style is a good skill. Telling has its place. I’ve seen a lot of really awful showing. Most of the cookie cutter trash novels on the ‘best seller’ lists. If that’s what sells, fine. If telling is distancing to many readers, fine. It is good to always stretch and improve your writing. But I will read the two stories, and I will probably find things I like equally about them. It’s almost like right brain vs. left brain or something. Some people just need to have things spoon fed to them visually. But then those people will turn around and malign telling as being the lower quality spoon feeding method. I do admit telling and being a lazy writer might be related. It is something I should work on and I get embarrassed about it in my writing. But for all I know next year mythic telling fables will be all the rage and popular, then someone will re-write history. I mean, one example that comes to mind is J.K. Rowling’s book of fairy tales. Maybe that’s ok because its a tie-in book for a fantasy based world and for ‘young adults’. But still, I think they are admirable stories. Just like Aesop’s Fables are still interesting today. At least to me.
You’re right, Jeff, that there’s a lot of leeway between pure telling and pure showing, and different styles of story call for a different balance. And yeah, some fairy tales work with hardly any telling. And obviously Jeffrey Ford is a better writer than me for more reasons than just that he shows and I tell. I don’t think my story utterly sucked. I just don’t think it’s really at risk of making anybody cry.
I haven’t read Rowling’s fairy tales–but conceptually, it does sort of seem like something she couldn’t really have done with the same success had she not written seven Harry Potter books first. Like with Tolkien–he churned out a thousand “lost tales” and myths and such before he made all us layman readers (non-linguists, non-academics) care by putting it all into the heads of a couple of accessible hobbits.
So yeah, I think you’re right in that it’s a matter of how people’s brains work and what they expect out of stories. But I do think there’s something objective, common among all readers, that makes certain storytelling techniques work more viscerally than others. Which is why I am willing to go out on a limb and say that if you read both stories and think mine is just as good as Jeff Ford’s, I’ll eat my hat.
Thanks for the response. I’ll read both stories and let you know. The audio version may have more power because of that medium and the reader. Reading has always struck me as a more intellectual exercise than emotional. Hardly any stories scare me, make me cry, etc. A life of corporate e-mail and technical manuals has perhaps ruined me. But something to work on. I just worry there’s a mental hurtle I may not be able to jump. I guess we all have our weaknesses. You’ve certainly made good progress on yours and I wish you much continued success.