“Write what you know” they say, which cuts out a lot of imaginative work. Dragons, unicorns and the heady world of quantitative surveying go down the toilet if you follow that bad writing advice. Instead, write what you care about. If you care about the subject, you’ll learn the details of the English saddle, vasectomies or animal husbandry.
“Show, don’t tell,” they say. Solid idea in general, but not always true.
Example:
“That was a hard time for Toby”
This is the opening sentence to a chapter. It’s telling, not showing. Sometimes you do that, despite the common wisdom that’s taken to the nth degree until the storytelling sounds unnatural. Your construction shouldn’t sound unnatural or it stops readers thinking about the story.
The above bit of telling is from Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood. I recommend it. It’s part of a trilogy so, as long as Atwood and I stay healthy, I have number three to look forward to.
(Book 1 was Oryx and Crake.)
Filed under: rules of writing, writing rules
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