Sunday, October 2, 2011

More Than Words

“Show not tell.”

How many times as an aspiring author have you heard this phrase?  Probably enough times to make you sick.  You’ve also probably read a thousand blog posts on the subject and reworked your manuscript countless times to solve this very issue.
But if you’re anything like me, you still struggle with it.

It’s an elusive goal we strive for with every word we write.  It’s the difference between saying how your character feels and describing what that feeling is.  It’s how we get our reader to put themselves in the character’s place.  If our character is scared our reader should feel their own skin crawl and heart race with freight, this is how we keep the reader turning pages instead of setting the book down and walking away.
The other day I was listening to the radio and the song MORE THAN WORDS came on by the group Extreme.  It’s an older song, but it fits this subject perfectly.  I’ve now added this song to my writing play list as a reminder to myself that it’s not about what my characters say it’s about what they do.

Here’s the song with lyrics, hope this helps anyone else out there struggling with this issue.


2 comments:

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