Editing (Part 2) - Show, Don't Tell

I've found over the past few years that I prefer to type than to write by hand. That's because typing is faster for me and it's also easier to make bigger edits because you can delete large passages or add new ones without making a huge mess. Therefore while writing my novel, I did it all in a Word document. But if you were to look at my desk it is covered in sticky notes with ideas I had for sentences, pieces of dialogue, description, character traits, basically anything I came up with on a whim. I really should organize them.

There comes a point for me after all my major edits where I keep tweaking a sentence or a paragraph because I'm trying to improve it. I swap words out for stronger ones or rearranging the sentence structure to have more strength. But instead of improving my work, I end up making it different (not any better, not any worse).

After growing progressively more frustrated with this, I have now implemented a new strategy. Once I am generally satisfied with a chapter I print it out with a different font and put it into a binder. This is good for two reasons.

Number one, since it feels more concrete I won't feel like I have to change every word. While I can work with abstract, I like having everything laid out in front of me so that my mind can truly comprehend the issues. I can flip between chapters to check previous information. It’s easier to see how long the chapters are.

Number two, by putting it in a different font it will allow me to look at it with a new perspective. When writing my draft I used Garamond because I find it one of the most attractive fonts. When I printed it out I switched to Courier New. This font is special because all the letters take the same amount of space, both vertically and horizontally. So while in another font the "i" might take up less horizontal space, in this font it doesn't. Apparently it will make spotting errors easier.

I am a third of the way through my novel, having edited this way. But I know that the last half won’t be as pretty as there are full scenes I am intending to write in to help character arcs and to strengthen the climax. 

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No matter where you go to search for advice, you are bound to run into this nugget. Writers are told that instead of explaining something it should be shown through dialogue or action. But like most advice given, there are always times where it doesn't work. Just because someone suggested it doesn’t make it a hard and fast rule. Writing is a creative process so having more tools at your disposal, whether you use them or not, is always helpful. You need to figure out what is best for the given story.

When I first started writing seriously I believed this to be important. But the more that I read and wrote, the less inclined I felt to agree with this one. Sometimes it is easier to say “she was angry” rather than explaining her jaw clenching and her face going red. It saves words and it gets to the point. It becomes tiresome to constantly have these elaborate descriptions when all you want to do is shake the book and tell the author to get on with it. The novelist, Joshua Henkin, wrote an article on how showing vs telling is a lie.

One of the turning points for me in regards to this was when I started to read Jane Austen books. If you’ve read them then you know what I mean when I say that she tells us the majority of the story. There will be full conversations that will be told where no dialogue is used. It was disconcerting at first because I wanted to see the nuances of the conversation, but it was also interesting because it allowed the main character to taint the interaction with her own impressions and thoughts. She commented solely on what she thought was important. Which made the novels longer to read because each sentence was that much more vital to the overall story. 

From this I’ve deduced that if a conversation is somewhat important for the story, but only the gist needs to be told to the reader (in other words, the reader doesn’t need to see a thorough recreation of the character's reactions), by telling the entire interaction instead of writing it out word for word will make the pacing of the book a lot faster and the plot more interesting. All the arguments we can guess at or conversations with very little intrigue will be removed.

Another advantage is the tone it gives the story. Instead of it feeling like a play by play like in a movie, it almost has an old narrator vibe to it. What I mean is it’s like you are being read this book by a storyteller instead of being in the main character's head. Depending on the story this could add an different layer to the book. They could show their bias against another character or demonstrate how much they trust a friend.

Personally, I don’t like it if there is too much telling. I like seeing characters interact and finding out in the moment what is going on. It takes away the suspense and thrill if the reader is told what is happening. So, like everything else in writing, it needs to be used in moderation. 

I "tell" the most when I want time to pass where nothing important is happening. Instead of jumping forward, the character might be doing a few things that are important to note so I quickly mention them before moving on. 

For every piece of writing advice, there are always times when they should be ignored. While they are useful the majority of the time, at the end of the day the writer will choose how often to use it because that's what makes each writer's work so unique.