Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~ Anton Chekhov
Author, Matt T. Dillon, keeps saying to me, "Don't tell me, show me!". I have heard that a hundred times. I know it already. It is ingrained in me. But, I found myself in a really boring patch of my NaNoWriMo book, it seemed flat, colourless, and I was seriously losing my way.
When I went back to it the next day, I decided to have a little read of it those troublesome paragraphs, because it was worrying me, keeping me awake. For some reason, a light bulb moment occurred and it just became so clear to me what I had neglected to do. I was TELLING the story in an intricate and complicated narrative that was confusing even me!
After a half hour or so, I had transformed that long and colourless piece of narrative, that was, I should add, vital to the story line, into an exciting action piece, with dialogue, colour, smells, explosions going off in a shower of white sparks. It came alive! I realised that I was now SHOWING my reader. I was showing them like a movie reel was running in front of their eyes.
I am now nearing the end of my NaNoWriMo challenge, with a total of 46282 words. I have been a bit lost lately, but during a night of not being able to sleep, I have woken up with a clear pathway, with one last hurrah of a climax that hopefully will allow me to end my book on a bang.
Thanks to all those authors out there who kept telling me to 'show, don't tell", and especially my friend Matt T. Dillon. http://www.matttdillon.com/
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