I am a writer. I have been repeatedly told that my writing should 'Show Don't Tell'. I have also listened to bits and pieces suggestions like 'Don't use adverbs', 'Don't use Passive Voice' etc. While these suggestions are useful, they did not provide a complete understanding of the context. I was like that blind man who was touching different parts of an elephant without clearly understanding what an elephant looks like.
This book takes an abstract idea like 'Show Don't Tell' and breaks it to its most minute detail. Tell Words, different view points like First person, third person, distant, omniscient etc, use of adverbs... all of these are covered in a lot of detail.
The reader can visualize how the concept evolves as it progresses over this small book of about 115 pages.
The best part is the examples. The author provides a large number of examples to illustrate her points. Every concept is illustrated with 'Tell' and 'Show' examples.
One of the things I liked is her openness to self-criticism. While illustrating some points, she takes passages from her own novels and show us how they could have been improved upon.
That took courage.
After reading this book, I could see a couple of changes in my writing. One, I have become more aware of when I am telling. For example, I recently wrote 'I panicked'. It was an obvious 'Tell'. How will the reader know I panicked? How can I show that I panicked?
I rephrased that with action sentences.
'I breathed hard. My hands were shivering as I gripped the steering wheel of my car. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my forehead.'
'Stop it, things are never as bad as they seem'
This book is up there with the other two great books on Writing. One is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Crafft' by Stephen King and the other is 'Everybody Writes' by Ann Headley.
This is one book that I will be referring again and again. That is for sure.
My only regret is that I took a lot of time to finish it. I could have completed it in one sitting.
Well, next book.
No comments:
Post a Comment