"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -Anton Chekhov
In my house, every flat (and, if we're being honest, some not-so-flat) surface owns a pile of books. Maybe two...maybe three...sometimes four or five or six different books (yes, I know I have a problem). What I've come to recognize through my voracious appetite for reading, though, is that the books I love most are often those where the world within becomes tangible as I turn the pages.
How does an author do that, create a world you can see in your head just by writing words on a page? Sometimes it's as simple as changing out "Margot felt scared" for the sentence "Margot's heart thudded against her ribs and she gasped for air."
It's the difference between telling and showing, and it can take a long time for writers to master the art of the latter - whether we're writing fiction or copy for websites or social media posts. Writing is writing.
So for those of us still getting the hang of it, here are five tips to help us work toward Jedi-knight status.
1. Use strong verbs.
If sentences are houses, then verbs are the support beams. They carry the weight of the description on their typographic shoulders, which means they should be strong - fierce, even. If you want your audience to truly disappear into your story, then you'll want to dust off the thesaurus: a simple word change can help create a complex scene.
2. Use dialogue.
Tone of voice conveys nearly as much emotion as faces do, which can admittedly be difficult when you're made of words and are relatively one-dimensional. Thank goodness for dialogue, then, because it helps you set the stage for a character's mood, emotions, and general personality. With dialogue, a paragraph of exposition can easily become three lines of conversation and, subsequently, make an even greater impact on the reader.
3. Use sensory language.
Just because you're reading with your eyes (or with your ears, if you're listening to an audio book), doesn't mean you're not using your other senses. A well-written book will have you seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling, and feeling everything the characters do - all from the descriptions provided.
4. Be descriptive.
Descriptions are like bright colors in a house: the perfect amount makes your home look creative, well-crafted, and fabulous...while too many can make it look like you gave a rainbow palette to a five year old and walked away. Your job as the writer is to make sure the reader understands your story; choosing the right words to craft your description goes a long way in making that job easier.
5. Be specific.
One of my favorite things to say as a copywriter (and as a fiction writer) is that communication is brevity (I didn't invent this phrase, by the way, but have borrowed it from a fabulous 90s sitcom that barely saw an entire season). While this could mean condensing and shortening long pieces of text, it also means clarifying muddy language. Your reader needs to understand what you're trying to say for it to matter, to make an impact. Specificity remedies this, provides clarity, and results in a stronger product at the end of the day.
Well, dear reader, do you have any tips or resources of your own that you'd like to add? Let me know in the comments!