asongwiththewordsyouspoke

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I feel like a better rule than “Show, don’t tell” is “Express, don’t state”

Because a lot of people interpret “show don’t tell” as “use visuals instead of dialog” or “play out scenes instead of referencing/describing them” which is an arbitrary rule that doesn’t communicate well what the issue is.

What I mean by “Express, don’t state” is that the facts of your story should be conveyed through the story’s elements instead of stated in the story.

If a character is depressed or guilt ridden, it should be expressed through their attitude, their actions, their decisions, their reactions, etc. instead of stating “this character is depressed”. Whether it’s done through dialog or a visual of a rainy cloud doesn’t matter, because it’s still conveyed directly to the audience instead of being evident in the text itself.

In fact, sometimes having a character describe a scene or a diagnosis or whatever using dialog can express a lot more than showing the scene itself.

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We have the most incredible, fantastical, outlandish dreams and nightmares every night. They seem like the greatest story ever told, until we try to tell them to another person; then they just sound dumb and uninteresting.

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Guitar player in Washington Square Park, 1949.

Photo: Ruth Orkin via orkinphoto.com

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just a little guy (gn)

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the audacity

Louis on stage in Cuyahoga Falls photographed by Amber Patrick

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Still collecting the full alphabet of the “live, laugh, love” variants if anyone has some good examples.

Bonus if they can fit the “We can’t ___, _____, ____ our way out of this.”

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but that’s my emotional support stack

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“Maybe I’ll see you in another life, if this one wasn’t enough.”

— Florence + the Machine

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Virginia Woolf, from a diary entry featured in “A Writer’s Diary”

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Ted Lasso: Smells Like Mean Spirit ~ S3 Ep1

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Dani Rojas lifting up and spinning Roy Kent around to celebrate Richmond getting Zava is too fucking pure. 

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