The Write of Way [Work in Progress, Member Driven]

Writer's Glue or How To Fix The Broken Sh*t #1 "Show Don't Tell"

Dear Writer:

So, the critiquer or commenters have come and gone. They've told you that your story doesn't work in places or maybe not at all. You knew something was wrong but you didn't know what.

Now you are sitting there with your broken story in hand saying, "Well, at least I know what's wrong but I don't know how to fix it."

You run around Wattpad and the intertubz and practically everybody has written articles on what's WRONG with everybody else's writing. Maybe the article even has a few examples but there you are, broken story in hand without the foggiest notion of how to fix your story.

You're overwhelmed. You're heartbroken. You love your story!

You want it to work but it just doesn't and the job of fixing it with nobody telling you how seems so depressing that you cry, eat Doritos, drink Pepsi with a pound of Belgian chocolate for dessert and maybe chug a bottle of cheap scotch to wash it down. You wonder why the hell you bothered to write it in the first place since clearly, you're the least skilled writer on the entire planet and should break all your pencils and smash all the keys on your keyboard.

*Whew* well now that we got THAT drama over with...

FEAR NOT INTREPID WRITER!

I'm about to give you buckets of glue, depending on what's broken--to fix your story in a multi-staged series. I'm a great believer in ♫work with what ya got, baaaaaaaaaaaaby♫

_____________

~Show Don't Tell~

This is a common complaint--in fact, too common. Sometimes people who haven't the foggiest notion what it means will spew it at you. Before you even accept this advice from a stranger *read a bit of their work*.  If they can't string together a coherent sentence on their bio page, ignore them.

If they do seem to be skilled--when you don't understand a criticism ask the person to explain their comment and provide a few examples so you know what you need to fix. If they truly want to help you--they will.

Soooooo what if they do know what they're talking about and your story is riddled with "showing"?

Let's fix it.

Ofttimes what commenters/critiquers are talking about is naming emotions [for the reader] rather than describing the actions related to those emotions. EG:"He looked frustrated." What the critter/commenter is saying in real English to you is: "what does frustration look like, sound like, taste like, smell like?"

In this case, what does "frustrated" look like and how many words do you want to spend describing it? Because that is the decision you, as a writer, need to make in the situation.

Contrary to internet yabbling, saying "He looked frustrated" or "She was angry" is not wrong or even poor writing. It is just not as powerful or inclusive for the reader as: "He scrunched up his face and tapped his fingers on the table" or "She kicked the hassock and threw the cat across the room."

So, when faced with an emotion to describe, it is more interesting to describe the action rather than name the emotion.

Let your reader decide how it feels for them. They're partners in the emotional journey with your characters so the more lifelike your character's response to events, the more drawn in your reader will be.

++++

Info-dumping style of "Telling":

This is where there's a big info dump of telling rather than an action sequence of showing the action.

Glue #1): Save a copy of your story and eliminate the whole paragraph/piece.

Read it through and see if the information is actually necessary to the plot or if the main story/characters will get along just fine without it.

Glue #2) This is a common problem in prologues and opening chapters.

If you have info dumped on your reader in huge hunks there--keep your sentences but cut and paste them into relevant places during your first 1-3 chapters, a bit at a time. Think of it as ninja information and slip it in there without boring your reader.

Glue #3) If you info-dumped in later parts of the story you can:

Can cut it down by half or three quarters by removing some of the information so your story doesn't bog down.

Glue #4) Instead of info dumping the entire past history your character experienced before this part of the story, just have a sentence or two that is relevent to the situation s/he's in right now.

Remember, the reader doesn't need to know every experience that your character had before now; or everything that happened in the entire country before the war broke out or every past romance experienced by the two main characters before they fell in love. Letting the reader fill some in details for themselves engages them in *imagining* they are in the story with your characters--which is what you want them to do. A little mystery is a good thing.

If it is vital history that the reader must know to understand the story-line or move the plot forward, you still have some options.

Glue #5) Have a character tell it as an anecdote to another character.

This can be tricky because it must come across as a regular conversation or tale-telling not just a big wall of info-dumping, boring blather. You must intersperse it with action. Perhaps they get drunk together, or they are cooking a barbecue on a hot day and one asks another what happened, etc. Be creative.

Glue #6) Use a flashback from a character who witnessed the event.

Tell it as a full story-within-a-story onto itself. If you insert it right after a cliffhanger-ending chapter you can stand back and laugh as your readers rip out their hair in anticipation...

Glue #7) See if there's a whole secondary story or subplot to expand on.

If there is, considering weaving it in, a bit at a time, into your main story. This is an advanced writer's trick and not for the faint-hearted. Your secondary story must be seamlessly blended so both stories hit their crisis at the same time and bring the whole orchestra crashing in together.

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Well that's it for the first edition of Writer's Glue.

Let me know if the article helped, or if I need to clarify anything in the comments below. Never be afraid to ask, comment or critique, oh writerly friends :)

Also, if you're struggling and you need some writer's glue, you're more than welcome to ask. This series is a writer-driven series so if you are struggling with something--chances are, someone else has the very same challenges and we're all in this together.

If you found Writer's Glue [Part of the The Write of Way Series] helpful and want to see more of them I suggest voting because otherwise, I figure I'm just boring the crap out of you ;)