Comments on: Show Don’t Tell But Don’t Show Too Much

By: Don Vaillancourt

Don Vaillancourt — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:08:10 +0000

I know I’m a bit behind in this post, but loved reading it and the comments.

By: Carol Berg

Carol Berg — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:56:25 +0000

M.T.on 22 Aug 2007

> In general, my protagonists are the least completely described of all my characters.

Even if they were completely described, I would imagine some readers would ignore some bits and insert their own interpretation, regardless. (â€¦I sheepishly admit that Iâ€™ve done that myself.)

Yes, indeed. As have we all. Beauty is in the eye…and all that.

Carol

By: M.T.

M.T. — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:43:36 +0000

In general, my protagonists are the least completely described of all my characters.

Even if they were completely described, I would imagine some readers would ignore some bits and insert their own interpretation, regardless. (…I sheepishly admit that I’ve done that myself.)

By: M.T.

M.T. — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:33:36 +0000

Are most young people these days not comfortable with trusting or using their imaginations? Theyâ€™re used to being spoon-fed with movies and highly-graphic video games and such, so maybe they generally arenâ€™t. Anyone have thoughts on this?

They could be.

On video games: as you’ve mentioned, some of them have amazingly realistic graphics. I’d imagine that tends to put a hamper on the imagination sight-wise. And seeing as those video games also tend to come with voice acting and background noises, same goes for hearing-wise. That leaves three senses to play around with: touch, smell, taste. (Movies are similar in this regard.)

A character could talk about how chilly a place is or how bad something smells. There could be a shot of pancakes on a stove or the inside of a barn. Both count on the person either having experienced those things or heard about it. It’s…just a different medium than words on a page, I guess. If they aren’t used to that medium, they probably just don’t pick up on the ‘cues’ as well.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:04:22 +0000

The rythym is gonna get you…

By: Constance Ash

Constance Ash — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:52:43 +0000

George Eliot, who might well have written the greatest novel ever in the English language (A.S. Byatt spoke to that last Sunday in the U.K. Guardian Review of Books, who has been so honored as to have her Possession ‘twinned’ with Middlemarch by a publisher of ‘greats’P –

Well, anyway, George Eliot considered she might be most proud of her ability to describe, to ‘usefully employ’ the pictuaresque, as she does so well at the beginning of Middlemarch.

There are so many elements to consider. But most of all, it seems to me, is having a sense of the rhythm of how your tale is to run out.

You know what that rhythm is, you know when to cut, drop, throw out, Because it is in the way, of how you are telling, and thus what you are telling.

Or something.

No. Wait.

You don’t KNOW.

You FEEL.

The rhythm section gots the pocket.

Love, C.

By: Beth S.

Beth S. — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:26:11 +0000

Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I like well-written description. Not to excess, mind, but I do love the artful use of detail and underpainting. And while I don’t need for the writer to color in every detail of a character’s appearance, I like them to at least be sketched in. I’m visual–paint me a picture.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:48:11 +0000

I think it’s possibly less a factor of imagination than experience. The more you read, the more practiced at filling-in-the-blanks you become. Also, genre-specific blanks, like “elf” or “FTL,” practically require prior experience to make sense. Description as training wheels, maybe?

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:03:58 +0000

I’d argue that the video games help the imagination rather than hurt it. You’ve got hundreds of thousands of kids exploring alien planets, saving princesses, tearing up when their favorite Final Fantasy characters die. They’re choosing sides in World of WarCraft and running up millions of dollars at the box office to see their favorite comic book characters (and video game characters, X-Men video games sell like crazy) on the big screen. Even 5 years, video games weren’t so mainstream. Now that they are, you have countless kids absorbed in fantasy scenarios for hours every day. If nothing else, that’s got to open your mind a little, I’d say.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:53:43 +0000

I can only speak to the household young people I am familiar with. My older daughter can handle implication and suggestion with the best of them. My younger daughter (11) is definitely wary of things that aren’t spelled out for her. Some of that I think is age; she’s still working on the theory that reading=decoding, which (I think) breeds a certain literalness of approach. But she’s also, as a person, less tolerant of uncertainty than her sister. That’s a part of her character.

I used to work with a guy who didn’t like fiction because it was “all lies.” One of the hardest things to remember as a writer is that not all readers receive information the way we do, or even the way we mean them to.