Telling much? Fine. Just do it right.
Just started reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
Well, there you have it, one of the instances a strong author’s voice works. Sit up and take notice, fellow writers: She TOLD the story. Yes, that’s right. She started the book by telling.
And now repeat these same sentiments in forums, in emails, on chats. How often have you seen these touted by your fellow authors that multiple POV, wherein each POV is not encased within a section, is just wrong, wrong, wrong, terrible writing? Telling is a bad, bad, bad, bad thing to do.
Analyze! There’s nothing wrong with it. Just like any POV style, writing plot with a rapidly shifting stream of POV is not wrong. It’s all about how it’s done. And telling? You think that’s wrong? Well, wake up. Stories are told. We do a little shuffling about with words to make the world more real to the reader, but yes, the story is told. It’s all about balancing the telling between “Look, this point is interesting!” and moving the plot forward.
If you take the case of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, the author used a lot of telling. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this story. Enjoying it so far. Totally ripping with laughter (in my head at least) that this very successful book flouts the convention shoved down the throats of most writers who are learning the trade.
And I feel vindicated. Yes, sorry, if I offend any POV purists. But you know, I’ve written single POV (first and third), and I’ve written streaming POV, and I did them the best I could because it’s a point of professional pride that I should learn the skill as far as I can take it. Anyone telling me to stop, can just piss off. It’s all about how it’s done.
Well, there you have it, one of the instances a strong author’s voice works. Sit up and take notice, fellow writers: She TOLD the story. Yes, that’s right. She started the book by telling.
And now repeat these same sentiments in forums, in emails, on chats. How often have you seen these touted by your fellow authors that multiple POV, wherein each POV is not encased within a section, is just wrong, wrong, wrong, terrible writing? Telling is a bad, bad, bad, bad thing to do.
Analyze! There’s nothing wrong with it. Just like any POV style, writing plot with a rapidly shifting stream of POV is not wrong. It’s all about how it’s done. And telling? You think that’s wrong? Well, wake up. Stories are told. We do a little shuffling about with words to make the world more real to the reader, but yes, the story is told. It’s all about balancing the telling between “Look, this point is interesting!” and moving the plot forward.
If you take the case of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, the author used a lot of telling. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this story. Enjoying it so far. Totally ripping with laughter (in my head at least) that this very successful book flouts the convention shoved down the throats of most writers who are learning the trade.
And I feel vindicated. Yes, sorry, if I offend any POV purists. But you know, I’ve written single POV (first and third), and I’ve written streaming POV, and I did them the best I could because it’s a point of professional pride that I should learn the skill as far as I can take it. Anyone telling me to stop, can just piss off. It’s all about how it’s done.
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