My words are glass

A bit more writing advice. Here's something that's been bouncing around the inside of my head for a week or so. I hope that writing it out will get rid of it!

If you're a writer who's asked for criticism, there's a pretty good chance that you've heard the phrase "Show, Don't Tell." This is good advice, but it can be frustrating to hear, especially since there are few satisfying explanations of what exactly it means.

These are my thoughts on how 'SDT' works, completely without examples, since I often find a pinch of Why is worth a pound of What. Maybe this can help you.

First things first, why should you care? How do you even know the difference between showing and telling? This is actually a little complicated. After all, every piece of prose is made out of words. On one level, it's ALL tell. So, let's dig a little deeper.

Here's the thing: the point of fiction is not the words but the story. A story is told for a reason. For most fiction this means evoking an emotion. Part of what makes a good story really satisfying is the depth of emotion that it evokes. This experience is what we read fiction for. We want that sense of wonder and discovery, that sense of being in an adventure, romance, or mystery.

The aim of good fiction is to trigger feelings in us, by means of empathy or other storytelling techniques. In order for this to happen we need to be able to see past the words. Our brains have (at least) two different ways of thinking. We can think analytically, where we use logic and problem solving in an attempt to understand something, or we can think intuitively, where we react naturally and fluidly to the world around us.

Reading needs to use both of these modes of thought. In one sense, words are something to be analyzed. We need to recognize them, decode them into strings of meaning, and comprehend that meaning. On the other hand, in order to really enjoy a story, we need to engage our intuition and experience the story naturally, because it's in this state that we empathize and see the patterns that evoke emotion.

This is where SDT comes back into the discussion. 'Showing' is a style of writing that draws the reader into the immersion of the story. 'Telling' is a style of writing that breaks immersion by over-engaging the analytical side of the mind, or under-engaging the intuition. Think of it like this; if a story is seen with the eyes, it's telling. If it's seen with the eyes AND with the imagination, it's showing.

That is a little over-simplified, and I'm willing to admit that there's more to it than that; it's also possible to break immersion, even in a very well written story, when parts of a plot or a character don't add up or make sense. This is because it can break willing suspension of disbelief. This may also fall under SDT, but I'm not going to talk about that now. Willing suspension really needs its own post.

What can you do to cultivate this immersion? Well, that's a bit trickier. Here are a few guidelines I try to use.

First off, SLOW DOWN. In order to tell a good story, I need to write enough about what's going on that the reader feels it's justified. When I write, it's easy rush through something I've got in my head without giving it the explanation and description needed to communicate it in an engaging way. This can leave my writing devoid of things for the reader to relate to, breaking the immersion. This sort of summation is what often gets called 'telling', I think.

Bracket summaries with something interesting. There are parts of the story I don't want to focus on, and summarizing them is a perfectly legitimate way to speed past them. However! If I spend too long focusing on an info dump without throwing something to keep the immersion going, people will zone out.

Last, if I want put in long periods of talking, make sure something worth talking about is happening. These rules get foggier and foggier, but...yeah. This one is because, really, a story is about conflict, and a conversation without something conflicting one of the characters often turns into a jarring info dump.

This is also why basic spelling is a must. I proof for spelling and readability first, because a spelling mistake jerks people out of immersion by engaging their analytical mind. I'll admit, I'm not the best litmus test for whether something is readable; I immerse myself so strongly at times I'll even ignore a doubled word.

Anyways, hopefully this will help someone. Thoughts? Questions? Snide remarks? Put them below. I'll try and respond, but I'm working 50+ hours a week night shift, so I don't have as much time as I might like.