Recently, I was told that I should take out all "she thought" or "she felt" out of a piece of writing, as it brought the reader too much into the character's head. Apparently, one should only ever show what a character is thinking/feeling by their behaviour - as in a film. So I wondered what others might think of this: I realise that one should be careful of too much "telling", but is it possible to take this concept too far? Isn't one of the things that makes reading a different experience to watching a movie, the fact that one CAN get inside the character's head?
Hi Lucy,
I'm struggling with this in a short story at the moment. In a novel you can show much more easily, but with a strict word limit (I'm aiming for no more than 3,000) you sometimes have to tell.
I agree that it can be overdone and sometimes it is right to show. Balance is more important and finding where it is right to show and where it is ok to tell.
Read your favourite books with this in mind and see how other authors do it, I'm sure you'll find the right balance.
Mark.
Thanks Paul - and I'm sure you're a brilliant writer!!
Hi Lucy, I am with you on this one. I think the show don't tell can be overdone, I took all of my character's, "he thought" out and replaced with descriptive narrative it was awful, maybe that's because I'm a rubbish writer! (that's where you say oh no I'm sure that's not true) anyway my thought,and no pun intended, is we think differently to how we verbalise our thoughts, so letting the reader know the character's way of thinking should be imperative to the building of the personality of that person. Once again I have to say that is from my point of view.
Regards and best wishes with your work, Paul