Show Don't Tell

We've all heard it. Show the reader what is happening don't tell them. I missed the class on this by Annette Lyon but I had a friend explain it to in such a way that I wanted to hit my head and say Duh! I asked him to read my first five chapters and tell me what I could do to fix them. Aside from all my passive verbs that I have a love for. He kept saying show me what's happening. Okay for most of you this is probably a no brainer, but for me I guess it took him telling me to get it. The conversation went something like this.
  My friend Gary. "Show me what is happening."
Me: "You mean describe everything that is going on the way I see it."
Gary: "Yes exactly."
Me: "Oh well that seems so simple."

I bet he wanted to head slap me too. Here I had been complicating everything because I thought I needed to have these flowery similies and amazing metaphors. And because of that I gave up and just told the reader what was happening.

Lucky for me, Gary, set me straight. So here is the challenge. Just write what you see.

You Are a Book Factory

Another Tip from Dave Wolverton: You have a job. That job is to write books. You need to set aside time to write and finish your book. Whether this time is in the morning, afternoon, or at twelve o'clock in the morning. You have to set a schedule and write. Until next week.

Wow!

This last weekend I went to the LDS Storymakers Conference. My brain was about to implode and I think it will take me at least a month to recover all my sleep, but I learned so much. So starting today I'm going to share a weekly tip of what I learned. Todays tip is: Exercise! Dave Wolverton said that your body can't perform up to it's full level if it's not healthy and happy.

I walk. I try to do it every morning and I find that when I get back I can write whole chapters. So get out and exercise!