Thursday, January 1, 2009

Johnny Was Angry


I was just working on a novel for a writer down in Texas and I noticed something that happens a lot in books that bears mentioning. Often writers will 'tell' the reader what the character is feeling rather than 'showing' them.
In other words, it's much better to write, "Johnny threw a dish across the room." Writing "Johnny was mad" is accurate enough, but it doesn’t supply any kind of mental image.

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