Re:‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Almost Ruined Me as a Writer
by chachachoney on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @11:11AM
(#21203963)
>> Or gimmicks. _Trainspotting_ is boring life stuff and the dude going on about how life sucks without heroin, but it's written in a Scottish accent, so it's interesting.
If all you got from Trainspotting is that it's 'boring life stuff' save for being written in multiple patios, you probably shouldn't be giving advice to fledgling authors.
Re:‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Almost Ruined Me as a Writer
by arandr0x on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @12:10PM
(#21204546)
The author of the original article is lamenting that "show don't tell" is making people reluctant to write about the personal traumas of their life, and instead have to write "action-packed" scenes. There are like three action-packed scenes in Trainspotting and they're all well within the lived experience of the average first worlder. It's "boring life stuff" in the sense of being about on the other extreme from a Michael Bay movie. Sometimes people don't talk in precise terms about art they consume.
I was using it as an example of a novel about life that has nothing action-y happening and where many scenes don't directly advance the plot, but remains both a page turner and not particularly preachy.
Re:‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Almost Ruined Me as a Writer
by chachachoney on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @03:23PM
(#21274368)
Seems like you're reading the word action in a narrow blockbuster hollywood sense, which isn't the context that it's used within the article.
> When I was taking a sculpture class in college, I sewed a
> kind of wall hanging about secrets I had to keep. I wrote
> things on pieces of paper and tucked them into bumps and
> layers in the fabric. I sewed pockets shut.
is showing.
This is not to discourage those authors whose favorite subject is themselves and their feelings. As an avid reader of fiction, however, if you really must write about your inner feelings, I would suggest making it magical realism or using plot devices where your inner thoughts influence real events, and not subjecting the reader to two hundred pages of your thoughts. Make it a therapy session or a deposition if you must. Or gimmicks. _Trainspotting_ is boring life stuff and the dude going on about how life sucks without heroin, but it's written in a Scottish accent, so it's interesting. (And to be clear it also has plenty of showing. A lot of the scenes of the family life of his friends, etc are pretty indicative of their social environment without going "we were all poor and disenfranchised".)