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Show/Tell dilemma breakthrough!

edited April 2006 in - Writing Tales

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  • I’m still new to writing and have sometimes wondered quite how this show/tell dilemma can be overcome, how do you “show” emotions on paper to make them real and not just through a boring description of the feelings involved? 

    I just had a flash of inspiration though – it may not work every time and it may not work for everyone, but I think it will help me.   I was remembering something that happened this morning.  I wanted to leave a room but someone was taking up too much space near the doorway and I couldn’t get past him easily.  I could have just said “excuse me” and squeezed past (or pushed the door wider open!) but I chose to put my hands on his sides to gently encourage him to move out of the way, which he did without even looking - he knew it was me behind him.

    The inspiration came because of who the person was.  We recently had a relationship and are still close enough for contact like that to be comfortable and natural between us.   If it had been anybody else in the doorway I wouldn’t have dreamt of touching them like that or probably at all.  I suddenly realised that to describe such a moment between two people would "show" that there was some sort of caring relationship between them.  And naturally, if a character is totally averse to the other person they would probably go out of their way not to come into physical contact with them and their efforts to do so could be described.  Am I on the right track here?  I hope so - it feels like it! :-)
  • I believe our own emotions and experiences can always help us in our writing. They don't have to be used literally but our own feelings are always there for us to drawn on.
  • Yep, that's the sort of thing tutors mean when they say that, and it is harder than it sounds at first.  I think it just sort of arrives as you get more practice, your writing improves, and the more you read of other people's work, the more you can see where you're either going wrong or getting things right.

    Good luck with the rest of your writing - it's addictive!
  • Thanks to both of you.  :-)  I will keep on writing!
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