by Susan Lovett | Jun 11, 2019 | Blog, Exposition, The Craft, Writing |
Show versus Tell is an age old battle for writers. Deciding when to show your world to your readers and when to tell them facts is a balancing act. Good writing requires both styles. In the last blog, we covered when to tell. This blog focuses on showing—the powerhouse of writing.
Showing gives your reader a more immersive experience. It’s the difference between reading a newspaper article and a novel. One gives the facts with a sprinkling of details and description. The other invites the reader to experience the story along with the character. It’s engaging.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 4, 2019 | Blog, Exposition, The Craft, Writing |
Every writer has learned the first rule of writing: “Show don’t tell.” It is the preeminent bit of advice for writers of all levels and yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and confusing rules. Sure, it’s easy to understand why you shouldn’t tell your story from start to end like a person at the party who keeps saying, “…and then we…” with no end to the boredom. But it is not so easy to figure out what telling is versus showing. Sometimes they seem a lot alike. It all depends on how you write. The truth is good writing combines both showing and telling.
by Susan Lovett | Apr 16, 2019 | Blog, Story, The Craft, Writing |
Story is everything. It’s the prime initiative. The raison d’être. Nothing should subjugate it. Nothing be held higher or given more attention. Sounds simple, right? Not so much.
I recently read a story that had amazing detail, setting, and concept, but the author spent so much time pushing her agenda she lost the thread of the story. It was lost among the message. It didn’t help that she presented her story in a fractured timeline, destroying any chance for tension. The characters were subservient to the setting. The setting used mostly as evidence in proving her cause. It was a missed opportunity. The book could have been great. It had all the elements, but needed editing and a strong hand.
There are steps you can take to ensure your story remains at the forefront. The biggest is to understand the big ways you can go off track. Here are some things have a tendency to take over:
by Susan Lovett | Mar 19, 2019 | A Writer's Life, Blog, Motivation, The Craft, Writing |
Every writer has heard the advice to write what you know, and it is good advice to a point. It’s impossible to write about things you don’t understand. But the problem with this advice is that writers can learn. We can research and pick up the facts. We can break down a problem and find experts to explain the mechanics of how things work. Heck, we can even watch documentaries to see how things came about and how to videos to see it in action. What we cannot do is know how those situations feel without understanding the emotions associated with it. We can’t find the story behind things if we can’t empathize with it.
by Susan Lovett | Oct 16, 2018 | Blog, The Craft, Writing |
Over the past five years, I’ve posted 15 lists filled with advice for writers on a wide variety of topics within the industry. Now I’ve pulled them together in one compilation.
by Susan Lovett | Jul 17, 2018 | Blog, Speeches, The Craft, Writing |
In previous blogs, we covered what to say in your writing and how. The last blog covered a list of quick tips for writing in various formats.
This blog will focus solely on writing for the ear—speeches, radio scripts, podcasts, narration tracks, and other audio forms. This type of writing is different than writing for the page.
by Susan Lovett | Jul 10, 2018 | Blog, Speeches, The Craft, Writing |
The first two blogs in this series spoke to finding what to say in a blog, speech, article or podcast script, or other short form of writing. You can find them here and here.
Now we’re going to move onto practical tips to help you write your piece. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
by Susan Lovett | Jul 3, 2018 | Blog, Speeches, The Craft, Writing |
Figuring out how to begin is always tough for writers. It’s the first big hurdle in the writing process. But with a little help, it doesn’t have to stop your progress.
This series breaks down the steps to figuring out what to write or say. To read the first blog in our series with steps one, two and three, click here.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 26, 2018 | Blog, Speeches, The Craft, Writing |
Before you can write, you have to have something to say. It’s a pretty simple concept of putting ideas before words. Still it’s funny how often people sit down at their computer and expect to write a flawless article or speech without first considering how to develop their idea.
Now I get the whole “pantsing” it idea, but when it comes to writing short form pieces, it pays to get the idea clear in your head before you begin.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 19, 2018 | Blog, Character, The Craft, Writing |
This is part two in Developing Characters. You can read the first part here. It talks about creating characters that are complete, like people. This part is focused on the big answers you need when creating a good character.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 12, 2018 | Blog, Character, The Craft, Writing |
Building a character is harder than making a friend (which is not a small statement for an introvert to make). This is, of course, if you don’t make a habit of analyzing everything about your friends and their every action, which would be both presumptuous and rude, at the very least.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 5, 2018 | Blog, Motivation, The Craft, Writing |
I began my professional writing career with a major corporation. Soon after starting that job, I was thrilled when my boss praised me for writing clean. What my boss was trying to say was that she liked that I could write quickly and needed few edits (mostly for those darned dangling participial phrases I love). The problem with her praise was that it stunted my growth as a writer. I leaned into the idea of writing clean and gladly whipped up assignments with little to no edits and called it good. My boss was happy. I was happy. What more did I need to do?
The answer was: a lot.
