II've been reading Francine Prose's book. I am very conscious of how little, even at my advanced age, I have read. I figure that if I am to read more I should know more about how to do it. It is very much in my mind how weak my knowledge of fiction is compared to say people like Clive James - who seem to know EVERYTHING!. It seems that somewhere around the age of 24 I stopped reading fiction (aside from Pratchett and MacDonald Fraser, my faves) and only read business books. I'm not sure whether I should accept these as non-fiction or not.). If you want someone to build a process / methodology for evaluating a business, I'm your guy. I'm at a bit of a loss though when it comes to the great works of literature and I'm feeling it.
Prose's book (which I bought) with hindsight should have been on my 'get from the library rather than buy list. Nevertheless I have learnt things from it. Most particularly the need to slow down a bit when I read. The trouble is though that I have so much on my 'must read' list that if I slow down too much more I shall be preparing to write my story when I am too old to hit the keyboard! (I think that it's ok to over exclamation mark in blogs, don't you?
Worse, Prose has made me question the whole 'show don't tell' thing. I have accepted this hook line and sinker hitherto. But she has made me think that I might need more tell'. I'm going to put that off until I get to a rewrite -if I ever do. In the meantime it has introduced a new uncertainty that is worrying me.
I would've thought whether a writer chooses to show or tell depends on what emotion they're trying to evoke in the reader at that particular time. What does Prose say out of interest?
ReplyDeleteOh Daniel, how nice to hear from you on this blog. Actually, I had felt that I was only writing all this as a diary for me. I didn't expect it to have any audience at all. I haven't even been keeping the diary much lately, although I have been slowly pushing ahead with the story - slowly.
ReplyDeleteTo try and answer your question -
I haven't the slightest doubt the 'show not tell' is the best approach for a newbie amateur such as myself. One exception though is when you link scenes. I'm always mindful of Elmore Leonard's stricture: 'I leave out the bits that reader's tend to skip'. To keep up pace you have to link the scenes that you really HAVE to show with short linking passages that get you from one scene to the next with minimum fuss - kust enough explanation as to where the story is going next so the reader doesn't get confused.
Thinking about 'what emotion they're trying to convey', I'm just not sure. I'm not that good yet and will have to think about it. I put off lots of things now until the rewrites. One thing is becoming clear to me: the first draft is only one step of the way.
One thing I do know though. When people come to the Richmond Writer's circle with stories that are,well, quite bad, the most common mistake is telling not showing. We try to point this out as gently as possible but it is hard to get people to accept.
I don't at the moment know what Prose says. I'll have to find the book, it's here somewhere.
Thanks for making the comment. I'm glad you look in here from time to time.