How do you set a scene without overusing visual descriptions?
Show, don’t tell is probably the most common writing advice any author will ever receive. Instead of explicitly telling readers what is happening or how characters are feeling, showing allows them to experience the story firsthand. It’s good advice, and important for writers to take to heart, but sometimes it can be difficult to get the balance right. Here are some practical tips to show, don’t tell:
To really immerse your readers in your story, you want them to feel as if they’re in it – experiencing the world you’ve built. By writing about how characters perceive and interact with their surroundings, you’ll draw your readers in.
Examples:
Telling: It was winter, and the water was cold.
Showing: I hunched my shoulders up, burrowing deeper into my coat as my heavy boots crunched through the thin ice forming at the water’s edge.
Excess scene description will almost always bring your narrative pacing to a screeching halt. Instead of describing the scene every time, describe your characters’ actions within it.
Examples:
Telling: The lake was frozen and the trees were covered in snow.
Showing: My heart pounded as I almost lost my balance on the ice beneath my feet. I ducked and weaved my way home, dodging the snow that the howling wind shook loose from the treetops above me.
When it comes to show, don’t tell, it can be easy to fall into the trap of over-describing. Language that is too flowery or over the top can be just as bad as telling. You want to set a scene, not explain it to death.
Examples:
Too much: The azure-blue lake glinted like diamonds under a glittering sun that shone like a lightbulb in the darkness.
Just right: The sun reflected off the ice brightly, highlighting the deep blue of the water beneath it.
The way a character speaks and acts can be the perfect way to show your readers who they are and set a scene without over-describing it. For example, you can use body language, like gestures and posture to reveal a character’s emotions or attitude in a way you can’t reveal by simply describing the scene. Sometimes an intricate description of the location is not as important as how the character feels in the moment
Examples:
Telling: The room was the same as he remembered as a child, with its red carpets, brown-papered walls, high ceilings, and huge wooden table propped in front of large bay windows. It made him anxious.
Showing: He shuffled anxiously to the table overlooking the garden, his mind heavy with the weight of childhood memories.
I adore all of this! Thank you so much!
Finally, my VERY LATE @pnatsecretsanta for @gatortavern !!! I’m so sorry for how long this took. Main frames + A bonus for taking so long under the cut!!
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mythbusters was such a trip, watching every episode is a total blast!
I will be 70 years old and I still will never have gotten over the time the Mythbusters used a rocket powered steel wall to - and I use this word as literally as possible - vaporize an entire car into red mist
OHHHHH this is so cool! He looks absolutely amazing! Thank you so much!
@gatortavern
CompoundChem always puts out really fun infographics. Here’s one about blood
It’s #Halloween tomorrow! Why is blood red and why does it have a metallic smell? This graphic explains! https://ift.tt/31XdIKJ https://ift.tt/3jK2ak4
OH RIGHT and I made this little fanart of the croki poki. I love him. I named mine chorizo and he’s such a fantastic singer!
Dragons and unicorns have such variety in designs!
“Dragon” is such a vague category of creature with such a ridiculous diversity of bauplans. It doesn’t matter how big it is or how many legs it has or whether it has wings or not: you can call it a dragon if it is kind of snakey, and/or breathes fire (virtually anything that can breathe fire has the potential to qualify as a dragon).
Case in point, look at all these different things that are dragons:
Hot dang, this sounds super fun! Another one I used to do is freerice.com, where you do little grammar puzzles to donate rice to children in impoverished countries.
If you are like me and always need to be working on something to keep your anxiety under control, during this quarentine why not helping scientists by looking at pictures of some neat penguins? or even galaxies? There’s this site call Zooniverse, where you can help on scientific projects by analyzing pictures and data! Right now my favorite project has returned, called Penguin Watch (where yeah, you get to watch penguins, it’s amazing)
you basically have to analyse photos looking for penguins, their chicks, eggs or even predators and human interaction But there are lots of interesting projects you can help in areas such as biology, physics, history or even art:
Oh and the best part, some institutions even accept it as volunteering/service hour requirements for graduation and scholarships!! It’s helping me a lot during this time, so I thought it was worth sharing
This is so cool! And it’s already great at giving me ideas for some stories! Thank you so much!
johnny’s gang-misfit
Happy holidays @gatortavern, this is your @pnatsecretsanta gift! I’m so sorry it’s late, I was battling with my laptop every step of the way, but it’s here now! Enjoy!
A Cozy Cabana for Crocodiles, Alligators and their ancestors. -fan of the webcomic Paranatural, Pokemon, Hideo Kojima titles -updates/posts infrequently
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