Multi Tasking

So I might just ramble a little bit here, from something that tickled my mind today. Thinking about “showing and not telling.” Thinking about using dialogue to reveal plot points, or descriptions of setting to reveal characters. Thinking that what’s interesting about it is we’re asking for more than one thing to be going on at once.

Because what does telling do? One thing: it tells you what’s going on. Straight up, no depth. Because even dialogue can tell, not show, right? When the dialogue reveals nothing about the characters, it’s more like the author narrating through their characters – and it sounds really crappy, usually. Usually, it’s stuff the characters shouldn't need to say. Because it doesn’t reveal the characters to us, it just tells us what we, as readers, need to know.

Same thing with flat description, though we usually just settle for flowery language to beef that up. But a lot of the professional stories I read give a glimpse into the setting or characters when they use description. Because you can describe a lot of things; if a picture is worth a thousand words, then most short stories would have to be ten pictures or less. Not enough. So what gets put in the story should be there for a reason; don’t describe a cluttered room unless it speaks to the character. Don’t mention a gold elephant unless the character is going to defend themselves against a rapist by bashing his head in with it, or if her trip to Nepal is going to factor in.

Do as much as you can with the words you’re given. I’m sure there’s a great parable in that, too. Everything you write should point toward character or theme, and everything you write about the character should support the theme. Forget all this post-modern crap about life being meaningless; books are entirely about meaning. It might not be precisely what the author wanted it to mean, but it still means something. And do more than one thing at once.

See you tomorrow.