As the air remains still and almost frozen in time, from my window, I can hear the moving cars crash against the atoms, whirling them as the next car crashes against them. The sound of the gust of cold wind sends shivers down my spine. People are making their long weekends worthwhile.
As I sit here typing with contemplation and intention, I can’t help but wonder whose creativity this would influence in the end. It better be worth it for aspiring writers and those looking to better their writing skills.
Showing
As the air remains still and almost frozen in time, from my window, I can hear the moving cars crash against the atoms, whirling them as the next car crashes against them. The sound of the gust of wind sends shivers down my spine.
Telling
People are making their long weekends worthwhile.
1. Showing
Showing reminds me of art. Have you ever thought of art being poetic and poetry as an art? One, two, and three… I thought I’d give you some seconds to think about this…
What do creative writing, poetry (songs and sonnets) and art have in common?
They show.
In the example above in italics, you will find adverbs, verbs, and an idiom. Now, let’s read between the lines when it comes to showing. Showing, when done artfully, will move the reader simultaneously with words into feeling through 6 sensory receptors.
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
- Hear
- Sight
- Skin – Sometimes reading can really be as powerful as envisioning and remembering what something may feel like through memory that it may give someone goosebumps, a putrid feeling or other that results in a physical reaction for that short space of time.
Let’s see showing and its similarities in a poetic sense, using a sonnet.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day – William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
This sonnet only shows and does not tell.
Showing
- Helps the reader think without giving everything away by telling.
Example: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
In the rhetorical question we conclude: a comparison of life, a person to summer’s day.
What more do we come to conclude from this sonnet…
The essence of life and its fragility in seasons and time passing by. Keeping this person’s spirit and soul of summer’s day for eternity through people reading this sonnet and the person living in it.
Showing, in painting and how it compares to creative writing?
When we think of certain colours, they can have different meanings for different people. For example, the colour Red. Red can mean passion, anger, sacrifice, courage, danger, love, heat, or joy. I am sure it has more representations.
Each artist has their specific choices and symbolism. Symbolism also has a place in writing.
For example, Dali’s paintings, eggs represent the hope of life, clocks represent the passing of time, and ants are a symbol of decay.
We can use all these tools, symbolism, and poetic language as ways to bring across speech through writing elements, description of colours to personality and with balance of these elements, that’s how one can show what they want the reader to piece together, and to conclude on their own.
This is where I believe books that make you think come before the reader decides to become inspired.
Showing artfully, be it through storytelling, poetry, songs, or art, helps the audience to make an effort to think and capture what isn’t directly being told to them. It helps expands the mind. They have to piece it up themselves, but telling is required in some aspects of creative writing.
2. Telling
People are making their long weekends worthwhile.
Perhaps I could have gone into a deep description of showing, but instead, I used telling in this part. It was because I wanted to be straight and clear by making the reader understand it’s a busy day if the street is busy on a long weekend.
There’s something about telling that doesn’t need a description, there are some things so profoundly felt through telling that no one wants a description of when it happens, it already makes a strong impact and it’s clear.
For example, He is dead.
Telling helps to transition stories or during scenes when quick, swift actions are required.
For example, He stood still and felt something coming at him from behind. He could not run, and he just froze, and then, he found the courage to turn around, and when he did, there was nothing there.
Telling is required in parts that are pivotal points, such as when a reader needs guidance – a short, clear message that helps them understand where they are heading.
Telling is used in moments of shock and wonder.
Telling helps with keeping the momentum during a certain pace in the story.
Which technique should I use for the most part of my writing?
Showing.
Showing creates meaning by taking the reader through the experience using all 5 senses. This illuminates the story, leading the reader on the journey and making them work for the experience without being obvious.
Similarities to something the reader has seen, felt, heard, tasted, or touched at some point in their lives or how it may feel it were to happen to them is when showing works well.
Showing helps readers raise their consciousness without even knowing. It teaches readers to think, question, wonder and become confident in their conclusions. It plays with the darkness of doubt.
Big concepts require showing.
For example, the world has no sunshine anymore.
There is no description or feeling that the reader can relate to understand what it feels like when the sun is gone or when someone has no sunshine in their world anymore. What part of that sentence affects a life, lives, and the earth?
Looking forward to our next discussion, in the meantime take a look at my entertaining and educational video on my YouTube Channel about showing and telling writing techniques and their advantages.
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Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
