The writer’s mantra show, don’t tell has an obvious partnership with the sense of sight. We show the reader what we see with our eyes. We see shape, size, color, direction, and motion. How best to show these? Comparisons Beginning writers naturally gravitate to the sense of sight in description. We are after all, visual creatures. Be careful not to catalog what you see: the big blue house sat at the end of a long gravel drive. This example includes size, color, and distance descriptors-big, blue, and long. While these all paint an image for the reader, the image is bland and without character. Instead, use comparisons to tease out emotional…
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Sensory Detail in Revision
You’ve spent hours on your paper. You’ve checked spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You rearranged sentences to maximize readability and harness sentence flow. The next item on your list is to insert sensory detail to liven up your text. Wordscape The five senses are: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Landscape painters capture the colors, textures, and essence of a particular place. Gourmands combine color, texture, taste, and smell into a fine dining experience. In the same way, great writers use all five senses to create a wordscape. Okay, I just made that word up. My point is, in order to put your reader in the character’s shoes you must use…
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Revising for Sentence Flow
With no sentence flow, Dick and Jane are dull as tofu. But that’s how I learned to read. It’s a wonder I ever developed a passion for it. Most sentences are two to six words long. See Spot. Spot is Dick and Jane’s dog. There’s a limited word list—this is Dick Jane Spot run house— you get the idea. It begged to be read in robotic monotone, and who wants to listen to that? Repetition may help you learn to hit a baseball, but Dick-and-Jane-style repetition just makes you want to throw up! Structure Luckily, I was exposed to other great literature: A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Grimm’s Fairy…
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Strong Verbs
Strong verbs make your writing sing. Since verbs drive the action in your story, it’s important to choose them carefully. Walk, look, and turn are not strong verbs. Neither are talk, watch, think, or realize. Yet beginning writers use these weak verbs all the time. What are Strong Verbs? A strong verb is one that does double duty. It defines the action but it also describes it. Let me show you what I mean. We can write, “Ashley looked at the letter.” Look defines what she did, but doesn’t describe it. Some writers are tempted to solve this dilemma by writing, “Ashley looked at the letter longingly.” The verb, look,…
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Persuasive writing
You’ve heard of the power of the pen? I’m pretty sure whoever wrote that was talking about persuasive writing. We are surrounded by persuasive writing: advertisements online or in print; movie posters at the theater; social media feeds; book reviews; letters to the editor; political campaign ads. Anytime someone tries to convince the reader to their way of thinking, that’s persuasive writing. Persuasive writing is a balancing act. Essentially you are making an argument without being argumentative. Let me explain. Let’s say you want to persuade school administrators to keep chocolate milk on the lunch menu. The key is to acknowledge the downsides of chocolate milk. Then state your position.…
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Show Don’t Tell Part IV
I want to challenge you to use the sense of touch in your writing. The obvious uses are texture and temperature. But there’s so much more. When you think of the sense of touch you may think of your fingertips. The sense of touch goes beyond what you feel with your fingertips. Texture and Temperature Floors are hard, roads slick, and pillows soft. That’s texture. Sometimes a simple word will describe texture, other times you may use a comparison. For example, the floor was hard as a tombstone might be appropriate in a ghost story. But for a light-hearted tale you might describe the floor as hard like rock candy.…
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Show Don’t Tell Part III
Use volume, pitch, rhythm, and rhyme to embed your reader in a sonic landscape. Show Don’t Tell is a writing technique to draw the reader onto the page. Imagine a snowy day. What do you hear? I heard the tap-tap of snow hitting my brimmed hat, the squeak of boots in snow, and the sheer quiet of a world muted by falling flakes after a first snow. Several days later the sounds morphed. The snow had a crust of ice that crunched under my boots. Birds sang from snow covered branches. Traffic hummed on the highway a mile away. Volume and Pitch Show emotion with your dialog. For instance, words…
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Show Don’t Tell Part 2
Show Don’t Tell invites your reader into the pages of your story. Normally in show don’t tell the writer uses descriptive language to evoke the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. You can show taste in terms of intensity, the five basic tastes, physiological reaction, and memory activation. Show Taste Taste usually involves food, but not always. More about that later. One way to immerse your reader is to suggest the intensity of a flavor. There is a big difference between the hint of a flavor and a blast. Take peppermint for example. When I add a candy cane to my hot chocolate, I taste a hint of…
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Show Don’t Tell, Part 1
Show don’t tell is great advice for writers. But what does it mean? The difference between showing and telling is the difference between immersion and bullet points. Think about when you are learning a new skill. While some people can learn from reading a manual, most of us do better when we observe the task then try it out ourselves. Take a moment to write the steps for a routine activity such as making a sandwich or washing your face. Now, think about how you can show the same activity. Did your fingers get sticky from the peanut butter? Did your eyes sting from soap? One way to immerse your…
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How To Write a Book Report
Book Reports A book report is a specialized report assigned by a teacher. Students often think of book reports as the teacher’s way to see if they really read the book. But sometimes your teacher will use a book report for other reasons. For instance, book reports can be a vehicle to teach writing skills. Compare and contrast, descriptive writing, cause and effect, even persuasive writing can shape a book report. It’s very important to follow your teacher’s instructions. All book reports will follow the basic report structure. Introduction The introduction is where you will name the title, author, and publication date of the book. You also lay…
