Writing: Masho and Misho · 1:42am Oct 25th, 2014
Why do we know that Twilight is a ball of neurotic OCD issues? Why do we know that Rarity has a similar problem with cleanliness? They act this way consistently. They don't just have a momentary freak-out--their neurosis affects a lot of their lives, and it affects the way that they react to events. It colors the way they are.
This is showing. This is showing by having a character act consistently in reaction to a multitude of events. This is how you bind a personality to an image or a collection of words. Not by saying "Twilight went crazy again." But by showing that she has a history of doing things that other ponies would consider crazy, reckless, or silly just to get around her OCD issues.
Why is this even important? Well, for one, it helps to cement a character's personality not only in the reader's mind, but also in the writer's. The more that you write out the reaction instead of telling it, the more it cements that character's personality in your mind, and the easier it becomes, later, to decide what they will do.
All too often, I see authors complaining about writer's block. A lot of times, when it's deciding what a character would do, this may be because they don't understand what a character would do, and putting it down in words becomes harder.
That may just be me. More below the break. This is going to be... a different kind of blog. I'm experimenting.
So. Macro showing. This is something of a misnomer. Macro-showing requires an understanding of micro-showing as well, but micro-telling can also be used in macro-showing.
Let me introduce you to two characters who will help me explain things. Masho, Misho, come here, please. (Played by Maud and Sweetie Belle respectively)
Masho
and Misho
are sisters. One's older, the other is younger.
: I'm the oldest. I have an understanding of how things work, and I can understand what my sister, Misho wants by watching her.
: I'm six! I like to run around and play, but I also like to sing--
: Off key.
: and I like to poke my big sister's face! Right there in the cheek. Poke. Pooooke.
: Right now, she wants to annoy me.
: Poooooooke.
Stop it.
Okay. so those are Masho and Misho. Masho is more general. She still tells us what she knows, but she does so without going into the fine details of what it is that she knows. Misho, on the other hand, tells us every little thing she wants to do, or does, or thinks. She can't see the big picture.
But they get along pretty well because, despite Misho liking to pester her older sister into doing things, Masho will often skip over important things that Misho will notice, because it's new to her, and interesting. To Masho, those important little things are just another part of her world, and she absorbs them without thinking about them very much. Misho, on the other hand, wants to explore every little thing.
The thing is, Misho gets on the nerves of everyone before too long, and so they turn to her sister Masho to get the shorter, less detailed, but still pertinent information about what's going on. And, after having watched Misho for a while, what Masho says gets translated into different variations of those little things that Misho has done in the past.
But, having Masho only talking to them leaves them possibly even more confused, or just disconnected from what's going on. Just like Masho.
: Hush. I'm not disconnected.
Here, I'm going to ask Masho to describe Twilight.
: She's a neurotic ball of crazy sometimes, but she's there when it counts, and she's learned a lot.
: Well, Twilight is this purple unicorn, and not all purple, y'know, she's got strips in her mane and tail, and they're kinda purple, too. Oh! And she has lots of books, she's reading all the time, but sometimes Spike interrupts her. Or Pinkie does. Or sometimes it's something that she's done that gets to her. But sometimes she acts all weird and doesn't like me no more. But it only lasts a little while, and then her eyes go normal again and she doesn't grit her teeth so much. She does that less now, I think. Oh. And she's really nice most of the time. But a little weird, too. I dunno. Do you think she'd fillysit for me? She seems--
Thank you.
: And then she has a pet owl, and that owl was something else. He would look at me all weird like, and be--
: Shush. Go play Mighty Morphing Mares or something.
: 'Kay!
So. What Masho showed us was fairly non-details. It's Twilight. So what? Misho, on the other hand, drew our attention to some of the events that showed us that Twilight had problems, but she was also focused.. She mentions things that Masho just doesn't care about because she knows what it looks like and describing it in detail is boring to her. Misho, on the other hand, finds everything interesting.
If it wasn't clear, Masho and Misho are Macro Showing and Micro Showing. Macro Showing is showing when it happens consistently. Micro Showing is those little things that happen consistently. when there are little, important details that need to be shown in order to draw the reader in that much closer to the character and the world.
Micro showing turns into consecutive action overloads, purple prose, or other things and drags on a reader after a while. The important details are still there, but they're hidden in the jumble and flow of pointless detail and quickly lose the reader in the flood of details. What's important? What's not? Trying to pick out what's important from a jumbled mass of overactive micro-showing will quickly lose your reader.
Similarly, relying entirely on macro-showing (telling, or summarizing) leaves out those important details and leave the reader wondering just what in the hey is going on. A mix of both is important to make a story coherent. Misho can be taught to focus only on what's truly important to the task at hand, and Masho can be taught to notice the fine detail that's important to the task at hand and not gloss over it.
That got weird.
Did you understand it, have any questions?
Let me know in the comments!
Toodles.
: I'm firing my agent...: Me too.
Wait a second... now I'm surprised no one has done a Rarilight about their OCD relationship.
It did. It made a lot of sense. Thank you for making this!
Well. This helped me think about all those school writing assignments...
I sucked at writing when I was younger.
Is it wrong that I heard three voices in my head, like this was a puppet show?
I think that most "Average" writers are good with macro writing, the getting the simple details and plotline across. But blend in some micro (or Misho) in there and it builds the world a lot better. It's like making a pie. Most people can make a decent pie with store bought filling and crust (filling being Micro, crust being Macro). A store bought crust tastes pretty good, and you can't tell that much of a difference between a handmade one and a store bought one. It's there, but slight. You can however very easily tell the difference in the filling. The homemade one has a much more personal touch, a stronger flavor, and makes for a better pie. Add too much filling and the pie implodes. Too little, and you have too much crust to make it a good pie. Just like a story ^.^
2554142
I thought there'd be at least one.
2554144
You're welcome!
2554146
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, honestly. I hope it made sense and that you've gotten better at writing.
2554147
When I was about done writing it, I realized that I was hearing Maud in my head when I wrote Masho's dialogue. Misho... sounded kinda squeaky. So Sweetie Belle.
2554148
Good analogy!
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I like to think I've got the balance just right. I hate going into excessive unnecessary details very often, yet I acknowledge that they're important at times, like when first describing a character or setting.
I still stumble every now and then though.
This was fun and cute.
oh yes, and informative. Yes. 
2554164
And that's a good point. There is no right balance all the time. The balance will shift and skitter around through different parts of a scene or through the entire story. It's part of what makes a story gripping, I think. When a story can surprise and enthrall with a change in literary scenery.
Of course there are some times that the use of "Misho" is done by professional writers and are done well. One of my favorite authors does the info dumps to get more info the the reader, and a few cases highlight that contrary to what Star Trek claims space is really, really, really big.
But you are correct, we ave to use both to make a story work. Too often to I just stop reading when I don't see enough micro-showing, which most of the time there isn't enough showing to begin with
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Indeed. Everything has its place in writing. Info dumps can work in the right setting, telling can work better than showing in others, showing all of a scene can work better than even a moderately detailed exploration of what's happening. It all depends on the context. Context is important.
I should probably do a blog about context later.
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In the case of David Weber he seems to use them not just to get information out to the readers but also to shows the passing of time in certain situations, or at least to show thay time may pass different in someone's mind.
2554182
Indeed. Sadly, so many space battles have a lot of waiting around to do. I still haven't managed to get through the last book.
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As I said contrary to what Star Trek says, space is really big and stand off distance between warships is nearly as large. Last book in the Honorverse?
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Well, the last book that I bought from the Honorverse. Then again, writing's kinda gotten in the way of a lot of my big book reading. And work.
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Tell me about, I started rereading the series mainly because I could use the reader app on my phone for the past few weeks so I had to use paperbacks. And I'm still behind on the "Crown of Slaves" side-series, and "House of Steel". So much to read before 2017 when the movies comes out.
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Mooooovies... Can't wait.
2554215
From what I can gather from the official fan group there is in fact a licence for stuffed treecats, so movie and stuffed shoulder kitty-weasel
Okay, this blog post just showed up in my feed. *Striker holds a bat over Fimfic's head* Anyway...
I understood this, and that balance is damned tricky to get. How much info is too much? The line between beige and purple prose can be easily smeared and nigh-invisible.
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Worse than that, the line between beige and purple makes a child's attempt at a straight line look like it was drawn with a ruler at times.
I believe that one does not need to describe the ponies. That is simply a waste of time since we know about them already.
However for describing scenery and world building, describing is definitely the way to go. Not in every situation, but if it helps engross the reader, then it's used correctly.
2554142 A wild new idea appears...
Over a year later and still I find myself coming back to this blog to show others.
You know you done good when that happens.