Struggling to express your characters’ emotions without telling? Let me help! Here’s a sneak peek into a no-stress method.
👉 Negative emotion ‘tells’ to avoid:
He felt frustrated. 🚫
They looked uncomfortable. 🚫
She was sad. 🚫
👍 Better to ‘show’:
He grabbed his coat and left. ✔
They fidgeted in their seats. ✔
She looked away. ✔
✨ What to do?
Your first draft is all about telling the story to yourself. Give yourself permission to use ‘tells’ as placeholders, especially if agonising over ‘shows’ would slow down your pace.
Later, when you revise your manuscript, be on the lookout for ‘tells’. Where appropriate, change them into ‘shows’. Keep a list of emotion words by your side as an aide-memoire*.
And if you can’t transform a ‘tell’ into a ‘show’ – if it just won’t work – that ‘tell’ was perhaps meant to be. There is no law against telling, and depending on the context, sometimes ‘tells’ need to stay put.
But for close POVs, you should always aim to show how a character is feeling rather than tell the reader the emotion they’re going through.
📖 Why is ‘show don’t tell’ said to be a maxim of good writing?
Writing full of ‘tells’ can fall flat. Modern readers most often want immersive scenes, not summaries or views from a distance. Reducing the number of ‘tells’ in a manuscript will make your readers more engaged.
💻 A manuscript that’s editor-ready is one that’s already dealt with a surfeit of ‘tells’. While an editor could help you address this, it’s something that’s best coming from you and your imagination.
📆 Free Webinar: Jan 17, 2024, 7 p.m. GMT 🌟 Is your novel editor-ready? Hosted by Claire Cronshaw of Cherry Edits and Andy Hodges of The Narrative Craft.
For:
– New authors who want to query a novel with a literary agent confidently
– New authors who want to self-publish a novel confidently
– Members of the public who want to learn more about editing and publishing
🔗 Sign up for the free webinar now.
📚 Bonus:
Learn about our upcoming course for authors whose manuscript is not yet editor-ready. Join us to ensure your novel is ready for the next step!
* Sign up to my newsletter to receive a free self-editing resource: 15 negative emotion ‘tells’ to edit out of your writing.
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