I've been told about 'show not tell' but I was wondering what other ways people think work when trying to improve their work. I have a piece uploaded entitled 'Angel in the Snow' that I wrote at 16 and know it needs improvement but am at a dead end in which techniques would work well for the piece. What techniques do you use and does this go for any genre or specific ones?
Read famous traditional authors. Read Carnegie- and Newbery Medal winners and Finalists. You will find books in your favourite genre amongst the lists of brilliant winners and finalists.
Also read poetry and plays.
Your writing will improve if you read the books listed below. Cheap used copies are available on Amazon.
'The Elements of Style' (Fourth Edition) by William Strunk jr. and E. B. White (Charlotte's Web)
'Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters' by Barnaby Conrad (In my opinion the best book on novel writing)
'Solutions for Novelists - The Secrets of a Master Editor' by Sol Stein. (Sol was a friend of Barnaby Conrad)
'Sol Stein on Writing' by Sol Stein. (Sol Stein was a best-selling author, publisher and award-winning lecturer on creative writing at American universities)
'The Art and Craft of Novel Writing' by Oakley Hall.
'Learn from the Best' is my motto.
The difference between showing and telling for me lies in the words you use rather than the sentiment.
"Yellow daffodils are a symbol of Wales"
"Sitting like a row of canary coloured hats the Daffodils reminded me of Cardiff city centre"
Telling is describing what's going on. Showing is creating a picture in the readers mind an explaining why it is important to the story.
The other thing is what does it add to the story? Sometimes a beautiful scene needs nothing other than beauty to justify it but sometimes a reader needs to see the point in it. What are you trying to tell them and how does that scene portray it?
Hi Victoria. The main thing to remember, I have found, is that you are writing a story/novel not a screenplay. Because we see the action and the characters in our mind's eye, it's very tempting to 'tell' the reader exactly what is happening, instead of 'showing' them by the dialogue and characters' actions/reactions.
Similarly, it is too easy to over-describe. Except in dialogue or a character's thoughts, it is best to avoid words such as; sexy, amazing,fantastic, et-cetera. Now this may seem obvious, but when you get really into a piece you are writing, and bear in mind what I said about our mind's eye, it is very easy to slip into a lazy way of describing things.
Try practicing by writing flash fiction. If you have something you've already written, which is say 500 words, try condensing it to 250. That way you'll remove every double noun (car door, door handle, et-cetera) and surplus adjectives.
I shall see if I can find your piece and read it.
Just keep plugging at it.