So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really notβbut honestly this is it man.
I'm going to try it.
I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see βJohn knew that...β in prose writing I immediately think βhow?Β How does he know it?βΒ Interrogate your witnesses.Β Cross-examine them.Β Make them explain their reasoning.Β It pays dividends.
All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and itβs forced me to stretch my skills.
This is your "show not tell" advice explained!
Editor here.
First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.
What weβre talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, βthoughtβ words are included. But so are βheard, saw, looked, tasted, smelledβ etc.βmost words having to do with the senses.
This isnβt black and white advice; sometimes youβll use these words and thatβs okay. Theyβre not WRONG. Theyβre just weaker. And theyβre weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*
If you want your reader to feel like theyβre experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.
*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes theyβre seeing through and thoughts theyβre privy to. So you donβt need to tell them βI saw X.β Or βI heard X.β Or βI thought Y.β You can just jump into the action/observation as itβs happening.
This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.
βIt was rainy.β Versus: βThe rain pounded against the roof.β Or βThe rain howled like an injured animal.β Or βThe rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.β All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.
This is also where
you want to pay attention
to verbs of being.
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.
That means that when you read a line like
John saw that the curtains were open.
It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.
You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.
You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?
The curtains were open.
Simple as that.
