The Trendsetter

When you think you have had enough information to help you begin writing your first fictional piece or memoir, you will scratch your head when I tell you there is yet another technique you need to master. And I experienced it first hand when beginning to write. Writing is not as easy as I thought it would be. This is because the same question keeps repeating itself through my head: how to make and keep the reader glued to their seat from start to finish?

If you plan to be an apprentice writer and writing your fictional piece just for yourself or as an exercise - that is fine. But when you write with the intent to send your manuscript to the editor, you better get ready for the arrival of the rejection slip. No, seriously. The editor is your first and the most critical reader you will confront. You need to impress him/her with your best writing.

So how do you impress your first reader who could make or break your ambition to be a best seller? I have written a lot lately about techniques to write a compelling fictional story. I need to add one more technique on how to present your story to your reader. It’s called show it, don’t tell.

As defined by Wikipedia:

Show, don’t tell, is an admonition to fiction writers to write in a manner that allows the reader to experience the story through a character’s actions, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the narrator’s exposition, summarization and description.

Writing about your protagonist’s feelings and actions when he/she faces conflict or when interacting with other characters is the best way to get the reader hooked on the story.

The best way to show is when your characters feeling angry, sad or experience any type of profound emotion. Continuing with the example from Wikipedia:

Instead of telling:

Mrs. Parker was nosy. She gossiped about her neighbors.

The writer could show:

Turning the blinds ever so slightly, Mrs. Parker could just peek through the window and see the Ford Explorer parked in the driveway. She squinted to get a better view of the tall, muscular man getting out of the vehicle and walking up to Mrs. Jones’ front door. He rang the doorbell. When Mrs. Jones opened the door and welcomed the stranger into her home with a hug, Mrs. Parker gasped and ran to her phone.

“Charlotte, you are not going to believe what I just saw!” Mrs. Parker peeked out the window again to see if the man was still inside.

By showing instead of telling the plot, you involve your reader emotionally with the story. The reader will develop empathy with the character’s feelings through their thinking, attitude and action when encountering some dramatic event along the way towards reaching their goal. This can be attested by the example above. In a telling way, Mrs. Parker is a nosy person. It is boring. If you describe her nosiness through her action and behavior as shown on the above writing sample, you immediately get the reader’s attention and hook their interest.

As a writer, you need to become the characters themselves in order to be able to show your reader through their actions and behaviors. It takes a lot of practice, but when you care enough to show your reader about your protagonist, it becomes easy for you to show how your character feels when the dramatic scene comes to surface.