Show Don't Tell

Ooh, I’ve had a light-bulb moment. It came to me last night! Just like that! Well not exactly just like that. But I realised despite being told emphatically by my tutor and every ‘how to write ‘ book I’ve ever read, that I should SHOW not TELL. I’m STILL guilty of TELLING far too much, ma Lord.

At the moment, my story is set in the present and the protagonist TELLS the reader what happened in the past. But last night, I thought why not set some chapters in the past and SHOW the reader what happened there. I’m also tempted to change the whole thing into a third person viewpoint (it is presently in the first).

So, massive re-write coming on me thinks! Crumbs! Better get on with my final OU assignment first though, which is like a scary phantom haunting my dreams! I know, I need to work on my metaphors too!

And here's a great post over at Blood Red Pencil about Show vs Tell.

Juxtaposition

Yes, I’m using big words now. And it's a nice word don't you think?

I discovered it on my Open University Advanced Creative Writing Course. And decided, if I could describe what it is on my blog, I may actually understand what it means.

So here goes. 'It's two things that are happening in a piece of writing that are placed near each other or side by side for comparison or contrast.'

Right, all I have to do now is weave the word cleverly into my commentary of my next assignment. Which seems to be a fiction piece mainly about slugs! Don't ask!

Crumbs, there is much more to this writing lark than I first thought!