There’s zing in -ing…

I get tired of the writing advice “Show, don’t tell.” After all, what I do is storytelling, not story-showing. Writing classes and guides wind newbie writers around the axle with this advice; older writers too. Authors get so wound up that they write some awful prose as they try to “follow the rules.”

An application of this rule (or, just a dictum people who can’t write blather about) is something like a corollary: Avoid –ing words. Sorry, there can be a lot of zing in –ing: In action scenes, fo...