Do we need to know every detail in between? No, of course not! It's been drilled into our writer heads how bad telling is, but is it always such a bad thing? I think not. And, instead of me trying to explain it, I thought I'd point you in the direction of a great post that does just that.
My blogger friend, Laura Pauling, outlined the difference between "bad" telling and "good" telling in her post here. I couldn't have summed it up better, so please go check it out. It might make a difference in how you "tell" your story. Even better, she's going to be talking about backstory today.
Also, guess what... my friend Erica is having a 200 followers drawing over at her place here. Go pay her a visit!
Okay, those are my Wednesday's websites. Any good ones you'd like to share?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Getting from here to there...
Do we need to know every detail in between? No, of course not! It's been drilled into our writer heads how bad telling is, but is it always such a bad thing? I think not. And, instead of me trying to explain it, I thought I'd point you in the direction of a great post that does just that.
My blogger friend, Laura Pauling, outlined the difference between "bad" telling and "good" telling in her post here. I couldn't have summed it up better, so please go check it out. It might make a difference in how you "tell" your story. Even better, she's going to be talking about backstory today.
Also, guess what... my friend Erica is having a 200 followers drawing over at her place here. Go pay her a visit!
Okay, those are my Wednesday's websites. Any good ones you'd like to share?
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20 comments:
Oh, thanks for sharing!
That was a good one. I'm looking forward to her defense of back story since as you know I struggle with that.
I always struggle with telling. I'll tell something because I don't think it's something I need to dwell on, but my beta readers demand that I show it. And they're always right.
We discussed backstory last night at our critique session. The subject never runs dry:)
I think I struggle more with showing than backstory dumps. I'm going to do myself a favor and check this site.
Thanks Susan:)
Thanks for linking to my post! And your commentors are right, the well never runs dry when it comes to talking about telling and backstory!
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out. Oh and thanks for the mention ;o) You're sweet! Have a great day ;o)
Awesome links! I'll especially have to check out Laura's post. Happy Wednesday, Susan.
I'm trying so hard too hard to avoid telling that my scenes have been dragging as I show...too much. Thanks for the links.
I love Laura so of course I'll check her out! Thanks!!!!!
There definitely are times when telling is perfectly appropriate. The key is to figure out what those are and what works best for your story.
The hard part is deciding what to "tell" and what not to tell. Of course you know that, though. :)
Yup, those rules are made for breakin' -
It's one of those things when "I know it when I see it" I guess - when I want to say "stop telling me and show me this" but sometimes I am being told things and it feels natural. :-)
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
I so agreed with Laura's post. Sometimes you need to just get me from A to B, without every painful detail.
I have to agree that's a great post at Laura's. I got so bad at telling every dang detail, Susan. It was awful. She walked from point A to point B and ate this and that and this. UGH
I have to be conscious of this every time I sit down to write. Love this post. :)
You did good with the information you shared:)) Hoping your day is awesome!
Oh that sounds awesome. I have put down many a book because of bad telling. Uck!
I'll have to head over to Laura's site. I was excited to post my pics. from the conference today.
~ Wendy
I'll have to read about "good telling." I'm intrigued. Thanks! :)
Okay, that was cool. I liked the "showing not telling" tips and I REALLY liked the blogging about blogging post. It really got me thinking. Thanks, Susan!
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