Show and Tell

The lesson in my Creative Writing class this week is about 'showing' rather than 'telling'. It's the difference between saying, "It was very cold." and saying "My teeth were chattering, my lips were blue and my toes felt like icicles." Some keys for 'showing' include using specific details, involving different senses, using comparisons (metaphors and similes) and creating scenes that reveal action, or things happening.

I was unsatisfied about my account of my adventure on Saturday with the car overheating. It didn't have the spark that I wanted it to have. I think my problem was that I was telling about what was happening, rather than showing it. I didn't show the impatience I felt as I glanced up from my Agatha Christie book every few minutes and peered up the road hoping for a glimpse of a familiar cyclist. I didn't write about the sickly green of the coolant pouring into the tube, like snot being snorted into a huge nostril.

When I'm writing about things that really happened, I think I tend to tell more than show, because I want to stay true to my memory of what really happened. It's almost as though I'm turning off the switch to my imagination because I want to be as historically accurate as possible. I ignore a lot of the information in the 'observations' and 'senses' files in my brain because my memory of these details is more cloudy or unsure and I don't trust it completely. I'm realizing though that while this dry, factual account may be appropriate for a journal entry, when I'm writing for an audience (small as it may be) I still need to be creative. I need to use imagination and observations and strong nouns and verbs, and use all the specific details that my memory can squeeze out to really show what happened and make these events come to life.


I am glad that I am able to take this class. I'm already becoming more conscious of the things I need to improve on, and *hopefully* I'm learning how to become a better blogger too. Hopefully, as time goes on, I'll be able to make this blog a more interesting place to visit.