Indirect and Direct Action in Your Writing Something I’ve noticed more and more as I read—and edit—is the use of what I’ll call indirect action, for lack of a formal title. What I mean is the kind of writing where the sentence is formatted so that the action lies at the feet of the observer instead of the actor. A few examples of what...
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Tag: showing versus telling
In today’s article we are going to discuss the how to tell a story without telling a story. I must admit that I tend to find the “show don’t tell” rule a bit ironic because all writing is telling. Yes, you read that right. It’s all telling. Telling narrative is obvious. With keen anticipation, Joan and Sally wait for their favorite actor to appear. The...
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Writing Pitfall #9: Overuse of Dialogue Tags In today’s article we are going to discuss our ninth writing pitfall for first time authors, the overuse of dialogue tags. But what’s the big deal? Well, the problem with unnecessary dialogue tags is they eat up your word count and provide very little in return. Not every piece of dialogue needs a tag. Overuse of tags...
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