{"id":143,"date":"2011-11-03T15:53:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T22:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harperkingsley.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/03\/show-dont-tell\/"},"modified":"2023-10-17T23:38:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T06:38:39","slug":"show-dont-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/show-dont-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"Show, Don&#8217;t Tell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a real problem with &#8220;show, don&#8217;t tell&#8221; when writing. I realize I do it, so I try to stop myself, but sometimes it just kind of gets away from me.<\/p>\n<p> I blame Joss Whedon and what I think might have been the &#8220;Earshot&#8221; episode. That part where Buffy&#8217;s reading everyone&#8217;s mind, then she focuses on Oz and he&#8217;s just this deeper well of inner monologue. It made me laugh happily.<\/p>\n<p> I&#8217;m completely enamored with the idea that someone has this entire inner world going on and all these sweeping thoughts. So while they explore every nook and cranny of an idea or feeling, when someone asks them a question, they&#8217;re just like &#8220;Yeah. I know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> It&#8217;s kind of a flaw, but it&#8217;s kind of become my personal style too. I can already see it being polished up into a &#8220;Thing&#8221; and you can definitely see how it&#8217;s been honed with my writing. Take &#8220;Visions of Blood &amp; and Shadow&#8221; and &#8220;Little Boy Blue,&#8221; then compare them to &#8220;Heroes &amp; Villains&#8221; and &#8220;Echo.&#8221; There&#8217;s a definite maturation process going on, and it makes me pretty happy. I feel like a home brew&#8211;given time, I&#8217;ll become a tasty beer.<\/p>\n<p> Someday I hope to be a good writer (I&#8217;m not egotistical enough to claim being a &#8220;great&#8221; one.) Sure, there&#8217;s some people that might say I&#8217;m pretty good right now, but I want to just keep getting better.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We are all made of stars.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a real problem with &#8220;show, don&#8217;t tell&#8221; when writing. I realize I do it, so I try to stop myself, but sometimes it just kind of gets away from me. I blame Joss Whedon and what I think might have been the &#8220;Earshot&#8221; episode. That part where Buffy&#8217;s reading everyone&#8217;s mind, then she&hellip;<\/p>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/show-dont-tell\/\" title=\"Show, Don&#8217;t Tell\" class=\"entry-more-link\"><span>Read More<\/span> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Show, Don&#8217;t Tell<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"Layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,55],"tags":[419,618],"class_list":["entry","author-harperkingsley0-0","post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-journal-2","category-real-life","tag-journal","tag-rl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pPoL-2j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":476,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/penguins-can-fly-lifestory\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":0},"title":"Penguins can fly #LifeStory","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, so sometimes my brother can be a dick. I laugh about it, but he's always getting me with stupid stuff. We were watching like Animal Planet or something and it was all stories about amazing animals and their feats. So during the commercial, The Girl blurts out \"Penguins can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Journal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/journal-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/9dfWzp7rYR4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/brown-spot-death-or-something-a-life-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":1},"title":"brown spot = DEATH (or something). A life update","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"September 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My brother got all freaked out because I've got a little brown spot on the top of my head. He's all worried that I have like melanoma or something. I told him not to stress, brother, it's all good in the neighborhood. No, honestly he's kind of spooked me a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Journal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/journal-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2539,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/the-idea-of-rpf-disturbs-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":2},"title":"The idea of RPF disturbs me","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"June 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't want to seem all judgy, but the idea of RPF disturbs me. If you don't know, RPF *does not* mean role-playing fanfic, which some people unfamiliar with the idea have taken it to mean recently. No, an RPF is a real person fic. Basically, it's when someone writes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mailed&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mailed","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/kindled\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/i-think-being-depressed-is-a-powerful-component-to-my-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":3},"title":"I think being depressed is a powerful component to my writing","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"October 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a kind of weird thing to admit, but I think the fact that I spend so much time wallowing in depression actually adds depth to my writing. It flavors the things that I do with a touch of melancholy and I think that makes my characters more realistic. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Journal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/journal-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/whats-up-buttercup\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":4},"title":"What&#8217;s up buttercup?","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It snowed here today, not enough to be serious, but it's supposed to be the start of more. Currently waiting for the children to come home and watching a cartoon they're not allowed to see. I've been working on my fairy tales and dreaming up some new uses for old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Journal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/journal-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/rewriting-a-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":5},"title":"Rewriting a story","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"June 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Wrote these tweets, got to thinking. I look at old stuff I've written and I can see a definite improvement between then and now. But does that mean I should change things? \u2014 Harper Kingsley (@HarperKingsley0) June 27, 2012 \u00a0 I'm not talking about simple edits either. I'm talking about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Journal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/journal-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6556,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/6556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}