Comments on: Show and tell redux http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/ Patricia C. Wrede talks about writing Thu, 23 May 2013 05:55:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: On Poetry and Prose: Which and Why and Wherefore » Liana Mir http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-33515 On Poetry and Prose: Which and Why and Wherefore » Liana Mir Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:02:54 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-33515 [...] I was less afraid of throwing the reader headfirst into the world and telling the mess out of it. (Don’t believe who ever said show, don’t tell—it’s show and tell, y’all.) So I ship off Jaguar and my beta ships back questions, good questions, the kind that tell me all [...] [...] I was less afraid of throwing the reader headfirst into the world and telling the mess out of it. (Don’t believe who ever said show, don’t tell—it’s show and tell, y’all.) So I ship off Jaguar and my beta ships back questions, good questions, the kind that tell me all [...]

]]> By: Libby http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11290 Libby Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:07:43 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11290 This is really, really nice to see, especially because a group of people at my college are trying to start a new literary magazine and I've just had to do some edits -- and ran headfirst into the showing/telling thing! I was agonizing about it... "should I tell her not to show this? SHOULD she be showing this? Aaaargh!" It's a volatile thing, I guess. Thanks so much. I was also wondering if there was a post on here anywhere about climaxes and the complications of tying them up? I seem to be struggling with that. Keep having characters head into a Big Adventure that goes wrong, which seems like the right thing to do, but then some other character just explains the whole thing, the other characters nod and look relieved, and then I have to find some way of ending it. If there's a post about that and somebody could point me to it, that would be fab. This is really, really nice to see, especially because a group of people at my college are trying to start a new literary magazine and I’ve just had to do some edits — and ran headfirst into the showing/telling thing! I was agonizing about it… “should I tell her not to show this? SHOULD she be showing this? Aaaargh!” It’s a volatile thing, I guess. Thanks so much.

I was also wondering if there was a post on here anywhere about climaxes and the complications of tying them up? I seem to be struggling with that. Keep having characters head into a Big Adventure that goes wrong, which seems like the right thing to do, but then some other character just explains the whole thing, the other characters nod and look relieved, and then I have to find some way of ending it. If there’s a post about that and somebody could point me to it, that would be fab.

]]> By: ~T~ http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11227 ~T~ Mon, 06 Aug 2012 03:12:22 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11227 I knew you would say something like that. You have such a sensible outlook on "the rules." Thanks! I knew you would say something like that. You have such a sensible outlook on “the rules.” Thanks!

]]> By: LizV http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11225 LizV Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:47:32 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11225 @ Cara - Yes, a reader who will do that is worth their weight in the precious metal of your choice! Still looking for a few more like that, myself.... @ Cara – Yes, a reader who will do that is worth their weight in the precious metal of your choice! Still looking for a few more like that, myself….

]]> By: David Y http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11220 David Y Mon, 06 Aug 2012 01:05:59 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11220 Compare it to Terry Pratchett's Auditors of Reality who took the masterpiece paintings and analyzed them by sorting out and quantifying all the different coloured pigments. Compare it to Terry Pratchett’s Auditors of Reality who took the masterpiece paintings and analyzed them by sorting out and quantifying all the different coloured pigments.

]]> By: Cara http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11213 Cara Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:21:57 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11213 @ LizV - That's why some of the best critiques you can get are from people who don't claim to know how to critique. A reader who says, well, I kind of got bored there, or didn't believe that she would do that, or didn't get why this was happening, can be better than any number of parrots repeating rules at you. @ LizV – That’s why some of the best critiques you can get are from people who don’t claim to know how to critique. A reader who says, well, I kind of got bored there, or didn’t believe that she would do that, or didn’t get why this was happening, can be better than any number of parrots repeating rules at you.

]]> By: LizV http://pcwrede.com/blog/show-and-tell-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-11196 LizV Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:57:05 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=1745#comment-11196 <i>Neither readers nor editors keep a running mental checklist of how much an author “shows” versus how much she “tells.”</i> Unfortunately, I think a lot of critiquers <i>do</i> do this, along with counting -ly endings and so on. Whether that's because they've had "the rules" ground into them so thoroughly that they think it's the only way to go, or because they lack the confidence to have opinions of their own outside of some supposedly-objective framework, I can't say (and it probably varies with the individual anyway). But it's one of the things that makes finding good critique so very challenging. <i>I’m not quite sure how intuitive writers train their intuitions, but I’m pretty sure it involves the same amount of reading (and possibly even more).</i> Yep. It's a matter of stuffing lots and lots of the sort of thing you like into your brain, until the back-brain gets accustomed to the patterns and assimilates that things you like are shaped that way (even if the front-brain remains sunnily oblivious to anything beyond "Ooh, that's good!"). Neither readers nor editors keep a running mental checklist of how much an author “shows” versus how much she “tells.”

Unfortunately, I think a lot of critiquers do do this, along with counting -ly endings and so on. Whether that’s because they’ve had “the rules” ground into them so thoroughly that they think it’s the only way to go, or because they lack the confidence to have opinions of their own outside of some supposedly-objective framework, I can’t say (and it probably varies with the individual anyway). But it’s one of the things that makes finding good critique so very challenging.

I’m not quite sure how intuitive writers train their intuitions, but I’m pretty sure it involves the same amount of reading (and possibly even more).

Yep. It’s a matter of stuffing lots and lots of the sort of thing you like into your brain, until the back-brain gets accustomed to the patterns and assimilates that things you like are shaped that way (even if the front-brain remains sunnily oblivious to anything beyond “Ooh, that’s good!”).

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