Blog Post #13

So if anyone doing these exercises got to this point and suddenly thought 'what?' well, you can blame me for this one.

I was there when Sarah was creating this NaNoWriMo bootcamp exercise, and she needed a sentence to be an example of 'Show, Don't Tell'. I suggested this one.

The lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious. Although, something I have noticed is that you can't 'show' all the time. Sometimes, telling does work for the story, as long as you don't overuse it. It's one of those cases where you should probably know the rules before you break them. Too much telling leads to dull writing, whereas too much showing can lead to really beautiful writing.

Showing also leads to more crafted, carefully considered writing. If you have to stop and think about what you're writing and how you're writing it, you'll have to put more effort into creating your story. Especially if you're me, you'll find this hard to do during NaNoWriMo, but if you're able to make your 1700 words a day, you should be able to craft your writing a lot better.

Although the lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious, this is also an exercise you should practice all the time, because it's definitely one of those things that you may understand academically but you'll get much better at if you practice.

And that paragraph was one sentence, so I should probably get some sleep.

Seven exercises to go, and one day to do them in. Can I do it? Who knows.