Heresy

From the 1970s, when I began writing fiction, I was taught that fiction should be "shown" instead of told. There should be live scenes linked by narrative. Dramatizing events and relationships was the way to give a novel immediacy, and the way to make a novel more like a film, in which there is almost no narrative. This approach has been the axiom of modern fiction.

But I've been growing restless with that. A lot of live scenes are nothing but endless conversation that brings a story to a halt. A lot of live scenes are boring. And slow.

A narrative can move a story right along, and do it with nuance and force. Most early novels were "told," often with a narrator, rather than shown. Try reading Somerset Maugham or Joseph Conrad and you will see how powerful a "told" story can be. What's more, the narrator can also be observer, adding insight into characters' conduct and motives that is usually missing in modern fiction.

Henceforth, I will be telling my stories, and using live scenes much less.