We as novelists and memoirists, due to the nature of our medium, can manipulate more of the five senses than screenwriters can. There are three other senses we can take advantage of that haven't necessarily worked well for cinema before: smell, taste, and touch. Read on to learn more.
Read MoreThe Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 1 of 5.
If you’ve taken a creative writing workshop or even a high school composition course, you’ve likely heard the advice: “Show, don’t tell.”
When we’re writing fiction or creative non-fiction, we want to show instead of tell, which translates to telling our story through a series of interconnected scenes, instead of summarizing the events that happened.
If a character needs a raise to pay the rent, the writer shouldn’t explicitly state, “Bob needed a raise to pay his rent,” at least not without also providing supporting details. Instead, she may place an important conversation between Bob and his work best friend in a coffee shop, where Bob explains that he’s having his second triple latte of the day at 10:00 a.m. after pulling an all-nighter with the quarterly earnings report.
So, yes, “Show, don’t tell.” You know that intuitively. But I’m here to explain part of the “why” behind this age-old adage.
Read MorePreparing Your Novel for the Audiobook Revolution, Part 2.
A follow-up on last week's post, this article explains how to cross-promote your print titles to audio readers. (Plus, learn why the audiobook "Empathy Factor" means you need strong, compelling characters.)
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