Show More, Tell Less . . .Revising Narrative August 25, 2009
Posted by jhicks in : CORE, Editing, Handouts, Love Unit, Style , trackbackHow many times have you heard this writing advice: Show us, don’t tell us. Readers prefer action over narrative so they can picture events as they may have happened. But how do you carry out this advice? You have already used adjectives and adverbs and told what happened . . .but this still may be telling, not showing.
With a few additions, you can easily revamp a passage to show.
(1) Add dialog: Let people talk to show their feelings and motives.
(2) Add movement: Let people move around to show what’s happening and what they’re thinking. You can imply many complex ideas with through people’s actions.
(3) Add examples that show: Give readers more than one example. In fact, this might be where you can add the dialog and action.
(4) Replace “is/are” verbs with verbs that show action: grabbed, argued, flung, considered, extolled, worried, announced, etc.
Compare these two paragraphs in this pdf–These examples will show you the idea, rather than our just telling you the steps! how-to-show-more-tell-less.pdf
CORE tip: Apply these techniques to revisions of your creation narrative paper. Maybe showing more will bring it to life.
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