“Show, don’t tell” is a piece of writing advice I’m sure we’re all familiar with. It’s easy enough to apply this rule to your descriptions and bring the action to life by showing your reader what’s happening instead of just telling them — but what about internal conflict and character journeys?
A few weeks ago, I received a comment on a video from a fellow writer. She said:
Do you think you can make a video explaining at what point you’re actually force-feeding your readers the story instead of letting them understand it themselves? And conversely, how subtle is too subtle? I’m always afraid that nobody will understand my characters’ desires, fears, and motivations if I trickle in the details.
This is such a great question, I wanted to jump on it right away.
We always talk about internal conflict and how everything in your story has to matter to the characters in order for the reader to care about it. And you might be an EXPERT at figuring out this internal conflict and meaning in your outlines and character profiles — but how do you translate it onto the page? How do you make it subtle, but powerful?
As writers, the last thing we want to do is force-feed themes and character transformations to our readers. If we wanted to do that, we would just make loud speeches or write an opinion blog. But the point of story is to deftly weave important themes into points into a masterpiece that keeps readers entertained and engaged.
Kind of a tall order, I know.
But that’s why today we’re diving into THIS EXACT TOPIC:
- how to SHOW and not TELL your character’s internal conflict
- and where their misbelief came from
- why dialogue is NOT a good method to do this
- what you CAN let your characters reveal in dialogue
- the one trick you can use to MAKE SURE you incorporate your character’s internal conflict in the actual story
Let’s talk.
What are some of YOUR favorite examples of showing vs telling from fiction or film? Remember that every story needs tweaking, rewriting, reworking, and editing — so if you feel like you need to show more in your story and you’re telling too much, YOU’RE NOT ALONE. But you can make this story the masterpiece you want it to be. Just keep at it.
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