Show, Don't Tell

Laurell K Hamilton, who is one of my favorite authors, mainly because I really like her books, recently blogged something I saw and thought, "Holy cow, she's right."  I should say something about that because its not said enough.

To newer authors, showing and not telling is something they can struggle with.  It's something learned over time.  You find better ways to write things.   Show, Don't Tell is when you need to explain more, not just detail of blond hair and sharp teeth. 

Instead of saying "it hurt badly," explain what hurts, make sure you put in somewhere why it is hurting, and what does it feel like.
"My finger throbbed from the pin prick, still settled in the skin."  or "Blood flowed down my leg as the wave of stinging spasms pumped with every heart beat."  Now that one is a bit chunky, but it should help paint the picture. 

Think of your work as art, literally.
Canvas-  Pages
Brush-    Pen, pencil, computer, typewriter...
Paint-     Imagination
Rinse Water- Editing or chapter breaks, depending on the way you write.

Now think of the picture you are trying to portray. Lets say you want to paint a picture of the good ole' outdoors with a mountain, trees, maybe some birds, a lake peeking behind some trees.  How would you start? What aspect do you want it to be?  What angle do you want the viewer to see? What colors would match the time of the sun in the sky?  Where should I put the trees?  Mountain?  Should there be clouds about the mountain?

There are tons of questions you could ask yourselves about it.  As a writer, when you are planning your book you'll make those decisions. First person? Third?  Which angle should they read from?  Where should they be placed? 

When you decide where to put that mountain do you just draw a line, in the form of a triangle and decide, there is my mountain?  No, you have to give it detail.  You have to show the curves, colors, any rivers?  Are the trees changing to fall colors?  That is where the Show don't tell comes into play.

Just like that original line for a mountain, you have an original line for the sentence, "it was very painful."  Now expand. 

This is similar to the normal detail through a book.  It is detail.  But where detail is setting the reader up to know that the MC has brown hair, blue eyes and a thick mustache, showing helps the readers know how things feel in aspects of what we normally don't write, like how things feel, taste, sound. Not everything should be shown.  You don't need to show every twig you step over to get from point A to B.  Its more the intense things that help to draw empathy from the reader, get them more involved. 

If you write that the "he was very attractive." They are going to wonder what about that person draws you to them.  Instead you could explain having a hard time looking away from his naked upper body because of the curves on all the lustrous skin showing.  Tell people why and how things are hurting.  Why does it hurt.  Why is something beautiful. What draws you to someone.

I hope that's helpful.  I know there are many ways to explain it.  That is the way I look at it.  Its not the most accurate way, but it helps me show.

Good Ideas

When you are writing a book, it can be hard to be able to get everything down, or have a good solid idea to put down on paper.    I just wanted to give some ideas on things I have used, or heard of others using.  I find them pretty helpful.  I know I have capped on this before, but it's always healthy to know where to go or what to do to make it easier on yourselves.

If you know what type of writer you are, that definitely helps. 

Are you the kind that gets an idea and just starts writing/typing? 

Are you the type that when the idea hits you, you have write it down and make a game plan. 

Or, are you the type that is somewhere in between.  You like to have an idea of what's to come, but you don't use too much structure.

I myself have two major ones that I use.  I bounce between the two: 

2. http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/how-to-write-a-book-in-30-days  I use the worksheets from here.  I don't use all the worksheets, but a lot of them.  The character sheets are awesome and the settings.  Take a look at it and see if it could help you.

1. Have you ever heard of Save The Cat?  It is awesome.  It tells you what your book/movie script has to have in order for it to be appealing, watchable/readable.  Where things need to go, when you should introduce everyone and so on.  I have a writing friend who loves it, and turned me in it's direction.  The main point I use it for is the cards.  When you read it, there is a section about 2/3rds of the way through that tells you not chapters or scenes, but sections of a book.  What needs to go where.  Then you use index cards, or in his case, he uses sticky notes.  You have 40 of them, 10 in each act.  There are 4 act. Act 1 Act 2A Act 2B Act 3.  By this information you plan your book on little cards, that way if something needs to move, you just move the card, not redo the worksheets.

Once I have my worksheets written down, and put in order, I use my 40 cards and go through and write down the scenes on each card so I don't have to carry the huge stack of worksheets with me.
I just have a small wad of index cards, which I cut in half so they go further and are smaller. 

I knows this month is NaNo Camp.  So for everyone that is doing Nano this July, hope you are having fun.  I am doing it as well.  Not a huge goal.  Just 10,000 words.  Not a lot because I am quite busy this month, but it will help me get some scenes down for this Novembers Nano.

I hope this was helpful.    If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Destiny

How to start another book in a series.

That is one thing I have been having a problem with lately.  I know I am not completely done with my current book, editing wise.  But Its camp Nano month during July and I am using the time to get a head start for my Nov Novel.  Last year I had already written 40,000 words before Nano, tacked on another 50,000 because of Nano and then wrote another 10,000 worth to finish the book entirely.  So this year I am thinking that if I can a head start, I can get it done sooner this year, or have to do less after November. 

However, I am at a loss and would greatly appreciate ideas from anyone on how to start a second book to the series.  I already have an idea of how to start it, starting from an un answered question from the first book I purposefully left open to bring into the second book. 
Here's the catch though.  As a writer you are supposed to portray a number of things on the first page or first couple of paragraphs of the book to set the stage and intrigue the interest of the reader. 
Do I still have to do that with the second book in a series.  Or can it just portray the main characters and only one part of the plot of the book.  I believe it should still be within the first 5-10 pages or first chapter that any new characters be introduced.  But that's just it.  My new character is the new plot but I cant introduce him on the first page let alone the second.  

So here is my question I direct at you to please comment with your answer.  If its the second book in a series, and you have or haven't read the first but you at least know it is not the first book, do you expect there to be everything laid out on the first page and a half?
Or, because of the fact that you know that it isn't the first book, you expect to find out things a little bit later because the characters were already laid out in the first book, so you just have to get to know the new characters and new plot structure. 

Your comments would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for your help.
Destiny.