How to Find TELLING in Your Writing
Once Upon a Time.
We just love that, don’t we?
It takes us back to some of our most cherished memories. Mom or Dad, or perhaps a beloved teacher, would start us off on some wonderful adventures with those powerful words.
We find ourselves whisked away to a land of fairies, princesses, dragons, and usually some moral about how we should all be good little boys and girls.
Once Upon a Time takes us to a place of innocence. A place of magic. A better place than where we live.
As writers, we want to provide that same experience for our readers. To take them to a different world and help them create new memories of magic and wonder.
We even refer to ourselves as Storytellers.
That is what we feel we should do, right?
Well… no. That is not what we should be doing. Story TELLING is the very opposite of good writing.
In the stories of our childhood, it is all about TELLING.
The young boy finds this, and the king orders that everyone do that… and the young boy meets the beautiful maiden, and they go off to do such-and-such…
And so on and so on.
The entire story is TOLD…
But as writers, we must remember this is the worst way to do creative writing. It is not creative writing at all. By any definition.
What we do as writers is best described as Imagination Stimulators.
We use a variety of psychological techniques and principles to evoke emotions, scenes, ideas of character, and a sense of motivation to lead the reader on a journey of their own discovery.
The reader can create rich worlds in their imagination by the devices we use that stimulate their thinking in a highly controlled and guided manner.
We purposefully manipulate their thinking patterns to have them touch on universal themes of collective unconsciousness.
In doing so, we can teach, enrich, entertain, motivate, or persuade.
We are the furthest thing from storytellers.
We are cognitive manipulators.
And our greatest nemesis is TELLING.
Every time we picture ourselves TELLING a story, we unintentionally ruin our chances of ever being effective as a writer.
The sooner a newbie writer can fully grasp this, the sooner they will see massive progress in their writing ability.
One thing I have found is that sadly, not only is this deeply ingrained habit we all must break… but it is so much a part of our core beliefs that we often cannot even see it when there is TELLING in our writing.
As an editor, I can spot TELLING from a mile away. It is easy to see when a writer has inadvertently slipped into “Once Upon a Time” mode.
However, I edited a piece for a contest submission at least a dozen times… then handed it to a few readers for their input.
They found examples of TELLING.
It is very difficult to spot TELLING in your own work. So here are a handful of ways TELLING is often overlooked. This should help you get a handle on our greatest issue.
Here is what to look for as you weed out all the TELLING in your writing.
· Watch for examples of Named emotions.
This is a pretty easy one. Go through your work looking specifically for any use of any emotion (sad, anxious, worried, horny, shocked, etc.)
Whenever you see one of these, you know how to replace the term with a description of the character’s body that reveals that to the reader. Add details to the narrative that SHOW the same emotion.
· Look for “ly” adverbs.
Slowly, carefully, meticulously, simply, and so on. I agree with Steven King that the road to Hell is paved with adverbs. These should be used judiciously. Especially these “ly” adverbs that highlight an example of TELLING.
· Info Dumps
As a fantasy and science fiction writer, this one is tricky. There is just so much that the reader needs to know… and so few opportunities to share these needed details. There is an ongoing struggle. We must fight the urge to simply TELL the reader all the backstory and explanations of magic or technology they need to know.
Whenever there is too much information shared at once, two things happen. The reader gets bored… and as a writer; you are no longer stimulating the reader’s imagination.
The same is true for recounting an important event or meaningful battle.
When We Recap Important Events
We are simply TELLING the reader. A little might be needed. Best if done in dialogue or through a character’s investigation. But too much leaves the reader restless. They went from being engaged in a great story to reading a history textbook.
Don’t have one of your characters TELL us what happened at a historic event. Take us there instead.
· Writing that is Vague rather than Specific
We don’t need to hear how a character often did something. Show one specific time they did that thing and provide details and a compelling motive, so we understand just how important doing that thing is for them.
The same is true for the details in our narrative. Use Specific nouns rather than terms like objects, things, stuff, items, debris, etc.
· Be mindful of NOTHING
If there are any examples in your work where the character experienced NOTHING, take a closer look. You may have missed an opportunity to do more SHOWING.
If your character saw NOTHING in the dark, heard NOTHING coming down the hall, or found NOTHING in the office… then you likely missed out on letting the reader know what is there.
Add fun descriptions of all the things that were there… and let the reader conclude that there is NOTHING of value for the character.
Remember… while we want to create the illusion for the reader that they are being transported to a different world… we are not story TELLERS. Our specialty lies in manipulating the subconscious. We never TELL the reader anything. We provide images that get their brains to create the story.
I am available as an editor, story consultant, or writing coach.
