Mistakes We Writers Make: a Blog Response

 I love reading Kristin Nelson’s blog. Because she’s a literary agent, she is able to provide insight into the publishing business and point out writer’s mistakes she reads or witnesses—all very useful for us aspiring to be published. This week, she has been writing about mistakes beginning writers, and even seasoned writers, make at times.

“The old adage still holds true,” she writes in her first take. “Show, don’t tell.” Many writers, especially “newbie” writers, follow a scene with an explanation. I can see how that, when occuring repetitively, can be frustrating to read: It’s tiresome for the reader because he or she not only wants to know what’s going on, but also be a part of it. He or she wants to discover as the characters do. It can also reflect badly for the writer. After all, skills in “letting the scene speak for itself through character building, setting, and dialogue” take time to acquire and sharpen. If you’re not putting effort in writing it, why should we spend the time to read?

But that doesn’t mean showing all the time; description can bog a story down. I once read an article about telling and how it is sometimes more effective than showing. For example, can’t “telling” be used for a shock factor? Also, dialogue, as stated before, can show though it consists of characters telling.  I believe, when in proper use, telling can be another form of showing. The trick is to find the balance between the two. I wish I can tell you how to find that balance and what “telling” I’m talking about, but I’m afraid I’m not that learned and I forgot which magazine/issue I read it in. (I think it might have been in a previous issue of The Writer.)

Ms. Nelson also talks about that imbalance, though in different words and with a focus on ineffective dialogue: Writers either have dialogue that doesn’t “further the story, help the scene, or explore character” or writers have too much dialogue “showing” the story. The latter can occur in a seemingly active scene or when characters recap an event for other characters—multiple times. Too many times. In this case, the writer is (literally) telling in the guise of forwarding the story or showing through dialogue.

Too much, and too little, does not help.

So how do we correct these mistakes? How do we make sure we show and don’t tell? Where’s the balance between the two?

First off, I think we need to define that very maxim. Ms. Nelson defines showing as “[letting] the scene speak for itself through character building, setting, and dialogue.” When I was younger, I defined showing as describing and not spoon-feeding information. Today, I’m leaning towards Ms. Nelson’s definition and seeing a mix of mine.

How do you define showing? Telling? What do you think is the balance and how can others, like me, achieve it?

 As you think about the answers, please check out Ms. Nelson’s original blog entries on this topic:

• Beginning Writer Mistakes
• Beginning Writer Mistakes (Take 2)
• Beginning Writer Mistakes (Take 3)
• Titles: Another Writer Mistake?

 Her latest entry deals with titles. I definitely want to comment on title-making in the near future, so stay tuned. =)