WHY "show, not tell"

I was recently reading a short story that just didn't keep me interested, and I finally figured out why:  the story was full of TELLING details, instead of SHOWING details.  I'm (kinda) paraphrasing here, but the protagonist thinks at one point, "I'm sad that I hurt my wife.  She deserves better."  

Anyone who has ever read a book on the craft of writing or attended a writing conference has likely heard the piece of advice, "show, don't tell."  For instance, the sentence above *could've* been more along the lines of, "Thinking about what I did to her... no!  I can't even think about it.  It makes me sick to my stomach."  We understand through showing details that he feels remorse. 

But why is showing more powerful than telling?  It occurred to me, when I read this story, that no one is so in touch with their emotions that they can pinpoint what they are feeling at any given moment.  In other words, when your spouse leaves a coffee cup half-filled with coffee in his office for three days >ahem!<, you don't think to yourself, "I'm so angry at him!"  No, instead you think, "Honestly?  Does he know where the sink is?"  

Showing is more honest, and honesty in fiction is power.  Showing allows us to *be* the main character, rather than *hear* him/her.  Showing doesn't hit you over the head with an emotion ("I'm sad."), it allows you to feel that emotion.  And nothing rewards your readers more than that.  

Deciding What to Work on Next

I'm on the second round of edits for SELLING HOPE, and *should* have them back to my editor this week.  But then, what next?  I've been researching two stories simultaneously, one a middle-grade road trip tale, the other a nonfiction picture book.  I've concentrated more on the mg story to this point, because, well, it's what I know - I lurve middle grade historical fiction.  (This one is half contemporary/half historical.)  My heart is in this project, but I'm currently struggling with the plot. Sometimes that can be good - some of my best solutions have come only after wrestling with the plot.  And authors are constantly told that writing 3 or 4 books of a similar type (ie, middle grade historical) is smart in order brand oneself.    

But my head says that the picture book can be researched faster (yes, even though it's nonfiction) and I have a very good feeling about its marketability (in other words, I think publishers will really like the idea.)  And it's not that I'm totally emotionless about this book - far from it.  The idea of it, and how I picture it being executed, gives me that itchy writer's feeling of "Yes! That must be written!"  And, too, maybe it would be nice to change gears for awhile - you know, get the sparks flying from a different piece of flint.     

So - which one to work on next - the heart or the head? The sloppy, messy, heart-driven book, or the practical, marketable change-of-pace?  How do *you* decide what to work on next?  And by all means, voice your opinion on my next project in the comments section!  Please?  ;-)  

Word of the Day

"chert:" waste that is removed from mines.  Think piles of rock dragged out of a hole and heaped in far-away fields.

Kinda reminds you of the revision process, right?  Digging through that first draft, getting rid of piles of rock you don't need, in order to find the gems.  

Chert. It has to be there, and you have to get rid of it.   

I'm in Love! (Again)

So if you scroll down a bit, you'll see that the main character of my work-in-progress, Hope, has been giving me FITS.  I mean, the girl was downright nasty.  Well, I'm happy to report that I've undertaken a major overhaul of this story, and she is now a rather pleasant person to spend time with!  It's a good thing, too - after all, I take time away from my family to write.  When Hope was buggin', I began to question why I was doing this.  I'd walk away from the story feeling bitter and short-changed, like I was covering for a lazy co-worker.  These feelings are difficult to relay to a 16-month-old:  "Sorry Mommy's cranky, sweetie.  The people who live in my head aren't playing nice."  

But now Hope gives me hope.  I received some fantastic feedback that has helped me figure some of the things that just weren't clicking.  That, and I've been doing more research (it's historical fiction), and am positively stoked about some of the things I've uncovered about this era (1910).  So - yay!  I'm in love with writing again.  And *that* feeling is easy to carry over to my family.