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Showing & Telling: Learn How to Show & When to Tell for Powerful & Balanced Writing
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781582977058
Publisher: Writers Digest
Published: May 5 2010
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.30
Language: English
Write vibrant scenes and essential summaries
Show--don't tell. How many times have you heard this standard bit of writing advice? It's so common in writing courses and critiques that it has become a cliche. Writers are often told to write scenes, dramatize, cut exposition, cut summary--but it's misguided advice. The truth is good writing almost always requires both showing and telling. The trick is finding the right balance of scene and summary--the two basic components of creative prose.
Showing and Telling shows you how to employ each of these essential techniques in the appropriate places within a narrative. You'll learn how to:
- Write scenes and cut exposition
- Compress time and summarize background information
- Create graceful transitions
- Effectively inject interpretation
- And more!
Complete with examples from bestsellers and interactive exercises, this comprehensive guide offers an in-depth look at scene development, the role of reflection in storytelling, the art of summarizing, and how to bring it all together.
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