Telling Authors?

[rune]

I have recently read a book by Peter Morwood called Prince Ivan. Now I dont profess to be an author, though I have dabbled in writing novella's for a while (nothing worth publishing). I gave up this little hobby when I realised I'm just not good enough and if I do something I like to do it well

Anyway I'm sidetracking. What I noticed about Peter Morwood's book was it told me the story. Im sure there are plenty of readers and writers that will know what I mean.

I would of thought the norm for authors now would be to Show the story

But it seems there are still those that still insist on telling us poor readers what is happening in their tales I felt so remote from the character's in Prince Ivan that it was a struggle for me to even finish the book.

So has anyone else come across authors that use the Telling style of writing?

 

[Brian G Turner]

"Show don't tell" is a pretty central writing mantra these days - I'm curious about the work, and wonder whether it's an older work, before publishers really started tightening on the mid-lists?

Either way - as like a lot of writing mantras - "show don't tell" is for reader enjoyment, and enhances the experience of the work. I can quite understand your disappointment at a general telling of a story instead of a more intimate showing.

 

[ravenus]

erm, I don't understand what you mean by the show/tell bit. Could you please clarify on this? I'd have thought books were about 'telling'.

 

[Brian G Turner]

"Show don't tell", so far as I understand it, is effectively about how important events should be experienced by the reader via the characters, rather than simply told that such-and-such important events were recently experienced by the characters.

A simple and exaggerated example might be the final half hour of Return of the Jedi:



Tell:

"Where have you been"? Princess Leia asked.
Luke Skywalker smiled sadly to her. As he stared into his sister's eyes, he wondered whether he should tell her about how he had just met Darth Vader - their father - and how even though they had duelled, Anakin Skywalker had come through and saved him from the ravages of the merciless Emperor - and all while the herioic rebel force had been trapped by the might of an armada of Star Destroyers. "Leia..." Luke found the word fall from his lips, but he couldn't even begin to describe the events of the past few hours to her.


That's the entire climactic events of Return of the Jedi reduced to a few sentence of "tell".



"Show" would be to follow the lead characters and their emotions as they experienced those events - Luke's inner turmoil as he battled Darth Vader, and Lando Calrissian's emotions at begin trapped by the Imperial Fleet, and his resolve to advise Admiral Ackbar to fight while they can.


I know I've used a non-literary reference point - but hopefully it helps get the point across much clearer.

 

[rune]

This book by Peter Morwood isnt that old I think some author don't quite pull this technique off.


I bet we can all list author that are brilliant at showing a story. One that comes to mind is China Mieville, probably one of the best visual writers around at the moment.

But even a basic, YA's book is written is a show style, some better than others, but still in a way that you can visualise the scenes and connect to the characters.

Chris Bunch for me is another author that tells the reader what happens to his characters, I also felt quite remote from his stuff. Though not as much as Peter Morwood.