The Art of Writing: How to Write Bestselling Novels

Show, Don't Tell (A Skill of the Masters)

(NOTE: I don't take reading or editing requests since I run a small business and can hardly find time to for my own writing.)

Can you recall a scene in a story where it was blatantly obvious that you were being fed a bunch of information by characters talking to each other?

There's a difference between a conversation that seems perfectly natural and one where you can tell the author's just feeding you information via the character's. How did that feel in the story? Did it feel fake? Did it make you feel like the writer was just phoning it in?

Have you ever read narrative in a book that went on and on just to feed you a huge info dump? How did that feel in the story? Did it fit or did it feel completely out of place? Did it annoy you?

How do you want your story to feel for your readers? If you want to to feel genuine, you need to truly envision what seems perfectly natural in scenes. But when perfectly normal seems like an info dump, you need to find the body language or the type of scene that speaks volumes without saying much.

When it comes to the art of show, don't tell, screenwriters are the masters. So much so that they make crosses at novelists with their fingers as if they're vampires because novelists so often tell rather than show.

Screenwriting can be a great way to learn to show rather than tell. If you can't take screenwriting classes on that skill, though, there are some ways to learn and practice it.

USE MOVIE SCENES

Movies offer the best examples of show don't tell because they're required to show everything.

Find some of your favorite movies and watch them again. Pay close attention to how they show certain  things rather than saying them. Notice the body language they use to show someone's upset--a clenched fist, gutted teeth, glaring eyes. Notice the camera shots of objects that tell the audience exactly what they need to know without a word--the bulge under the jacket of an agent that tells you there's a gun, the still-smoking cigarette that tells you someone was just in the room.

Pay close attention to how much information is given in these ways. Scenes will be fully crafted around showing just one important piece of information pivotal to the movie. Watch how clever they are at crafting these scenes.

Also, make sure you choose highly-rated movies. If you're only picking movies you like but that few others do, you might be learning from movies that aren't great at show, don't tell.

WRITE BOOKS LIKE THEY'RE MOVIES

Another great way to show instead of tell is to shape your scenes as if you're writing a movie scene. Picture yourself in the scene as the character. Notice all the important cues that happen to give necessary information about the scene without saying a word.

In other words, write like it's a visual medium as opposed to a written medium. Imagine it all as if you're writing a movie where you can't explain anything with narrative.

Lazy writing is when you directly tell the story in the narrative rather than showing the story in the narrative.

Write as if there is no narrative except the actions you write and the things that can be seen by the character. When you do this, you're forcing your brain to confirm to writing visually and you're making it more natural for you. Once you're finished, go back and add in the non-visual narrative parts. That's a great way to get this technique firmly seated in your writing style.

ASSIGNMENT

Now go follow the instructions in the chapter, and use these techniques in your stories. I've only shared a couple of techniques, but this is a skill you'll want to study from several different sources gathering all kinds of ideas on how to utilize it. This is truly a skill of the masters. Once you master it, your stories will rise to a whole new level.

Good luck, and as always, please vote for this chapter if you liked it!