I Won't Tell You Again

I had an interesting conversation the other day. I was chatting with a beta reader about Part 2 of Ambervale, and they made some (positive) comments about a certain part. I replied saying I was glad it came out well, because it was the biggest 'rule break' I'd ever done. For just 1 short line, I throw away all conventions of 3rd person narrative and totally change the tone of the text, and it worked. Everyone who's read it so far loved it. Safe to say, I was chuffed as a bucket.

Then they said something I wasn't prepared for. They asked 'what other times have you broken the rules?'

I had to think for a long time about the answer to that. Then all at once it hit me, I break the 'show don't tell' rule. Why? Because it's fucking dumb.


Ok, I'll eat my words for a moment here. It's not a terrible rule, and like all rules it's there for a reason. It's there because it works. The problem is, it doesn't work 100% of the time. Maybe 99%, but if you're trying to 'show' in that remaining 1% when you should be 'telling', your writing ends up just as bad as if the whole thing was 'telling'. Show don't tell is a good rule, and reiterating it to writers who are just starting out, especially young ones, is crucial. It's a fundamental part of the craft.

But like every fundamental piece to every art form, there are times it can or even should be broken. The skill lies in knowing when to do just that. The reason 'show don't tell' frustrates me is because all the way up people in the industry will talk about 'show don't tell' as if it can't ever be broken. Then, of course, they don't notice the places where it is broken to great effect because the writing is good. 'Show don't tell' is something people bring up as advice when writing is bad, so they never think about it when reading good writing.


This would be a terrible opinion to have if I couldn't back it up, so here are some times where perhaps you should tell rather than show.

Let's say a character makes an internal decision. It's pretty obvious you'd say something like 'he decided it wasn't worth his time'. That's telling, right there. You're telling your reader what the character decided, you're not showing him arriving at that conclusion. Why? Because it's internal. You can't show internal stuff all the time, especially if you're not using internal monologue. If you are using internal monologue, you still shouldn't show in most 'decision' places. Let's look at the 'showing' version of that.

'Hm, that looks really difficult. Should I do it? I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm physically capable. No, I don't think I'll do it'.

What a load of crap that was, all to explain one tiny decisions. Imagine if you did that for every 'he decided/she decided' in your book. When do you use that internal monologue? When a part of the thought process is important. Otherwise, can it. If the fact that they made that decision is what's important, just roll with writing 'he decided'. We make decisions all the time without any kind of internal debate or hesitance. If your character is driving along a motorway, are you going to have them think for two lines about whether or not they should change lanes, then doing it? Or are you going to say 'he decided to change lanes'.

When else can you throw out 'show don't tell'? Expository scene setting. Sure, you do it through 'showing' (in that you describe the physical area and 'show' what it looks like) but at the same time there's no difference between that and 'telling' the reader what the place looks like. Sure you can write 'sun streamed through the window onto the red table below' or 'there was a red table, a window above it and outside it was a sunny day', but neither one is 'showing' or 'telling'. They're told the same way, it's just that one is badly written. Sooooo maaany people read the second one and say to the author 'you need to show, not tell', but the rule doesn't even apply! There is no 'showing' or 'telling' here, it's its own thing altogether, existing outside of your overhyped boxset of 'writing for dummies' rules!

Next week, I talk about how I showed Neil Gaiman my blog and he told me it sucked.

A Collection of Prompts

Last week I said I'd post with some ideas I have for stories set in the world I've been building over the last few weeks. First, though, I thought I'd put out an update on how Ambervale is going.

I've finished Part 1, or at least have it at the point where it can't be improved until the whole story is finished. Even then, the changes will be minimal. Part 2 is approaching a similar place, and Part 3 will be written as soon as I'm comfortable with Part 2's standard. Overall, I feel the story is fairly strong, the prose is solid and the structure is inventive enough to be memorable without being so outlandish as to be awkward or difficult to read. I won't go about posting Part 2 here, not yet.

As far as the new world goes, I have yet to do more on the worldbuilding side of things. The names of things like nations and lands come to me as I write, so that's the place for all that to happen. I've fleshed out each individual magic system, but writing about each will be time-consuming and would ruin some of the intrigue of the story or stories that come out of this world.

The first idea (and keep in mind that these are vague) is as follows:

A young man has always dreamed of being a Priest, but The Protector has never chosen him. Not to be dissuaded, the man goes to study the arts of being a Priest, bluffing his way into the order's school by pretending he has in fact been chosen by The Protector. The Protector, faced with the possibility of having the reputation of his Priests besmirched by this imposter, is forced to teach this man the ways of his magic.

Idea number two is similar, but would instead follow a man obsessed with finding a Chronist or even The Watcher themselves. The adventure takes him to all corners of the world, and what he finds will likely be far from what he expects.

Idea number three takes a different approach. Instead of following a mortal person, it would follow The Former herself as she teaches and nurtures her small number of students. I still need to think of what exactly would happen in this story, but I like the idea of writing from the perspective of a God rather than of a person.

Obviously, the first idea is the most fleshed-out, and would likely be the first to get turned into a novel. Still, it's good to have options, and whatever one I'm not working on actively will sit on the backburner and become more fleshed-out as time goes by.


Now to address the burning question: What does this mean for The New Age of Steam?

Well, The New Age of Steam has not been abandoned. In fact, far from it. The Ambervale story is set in The New Age of Steam universe, and Beyond The Horizon is still my main project as far as novels go. If I complete a story in this new universe, it'll be a long time from now. That said, I may start writing something in this new universe soon. There's no reason I can't have multiple projects on the go at once.

Next week, I recount the story of the time I wrestled a bear in Latvia.