Showing vs. Telling

Show not tell is perhaps the most invaluable and—frequent—instruction I've had since I started to write. Books, forums, critique partners, blogs they all advise that to write good fiction you must show a story, not tell it.

But

No one seems to bother to tell the novice writer how to show it.

In the book Stein on Writing there is an entire chapter dedicated to solving that problem, it's called "How to show instead of tell."

Below is an example of the evolution from telling to showing from that chapter:

He took a walk tells.
He walked four blocks begins to show.
He walked the four blocks slowly shows more clearly.
He walked the four blocks as if it were the last mile shows more by giving the reader a sense of the character's feelings, which the previous version did not.

So, next time writing a scene don't only tell the reader what your character is doing, but show it by characterizing his/her actions. Mr. Stein goes on saying the best way to determine if a scene is showing not telling is by gauging how visual the passage is. More visual, more showing.

Books on writing

This book is my early Christmas gift to myself I've read "How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them" by Mr. Stein and just loved it.

So, I'm hoping this one is going to be an even better, more detailed discussion on writing a book.

It's funny how I've always wanted to write, but not until I've started I learned that writing a story is not just sitting in front of your computer and typing.

The first thirty thousand words poured out of me like summer rain, but after that I had no idea how to proceed. That's when I've decided to look for help, and when I say help I don't mean the grammar aberrations that's all over my draft, but the real meaty stuff that makes books so tasty—dialogue, tension, conflict, coherence (for goodness sake.)

You can find lists of books on writing everywhere, even books geared toward specific genre. In a google search I've found this one, there are many more out there. I was actually surprised Stein on writing wasn't listed, not sure why. Perhaps, because it's older (my edition is from 1995) and the publishing industry has changed so much since then, but I don't believe good writing has.