Webnesia MCR

blog

pensées

poems

2020s

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

publications

dreams

recordings

verse

books

reading list

wishlist

blog
archives

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Show, don't tell

The problem with "show, don't tell" is all of the assumptions you have to make about what you are showing. You have to hope your reader interprets things as you have done, a quite naive point of view in a world of psychological and other complexities, and will too often find yourself at least tempted to try to coerce the reader into sharing not only the reading you intend but the assumptions that underlie them and upon which they depend. Sometimes a greater (and more honest) verisimilitude can be achieved by more directly orienting the reader to the parameters of your particular story, even if this must involve a greater amount of "telling."

Labels:

© 1996 - 2024
All rights reserved.
Michael C. Rush (aka M. C. Rush)
Direct inquires to:  rushmc @ webnesia.com

(Site was originally called @ Wit's End, then
The Shattered Mirror, before becoming Webnesia.)

Defender of Truth & Justice since (approx.) 1973!