Guest post by author @TevisShkodra. Originally published at tevisshkodra.com.
You’ve all heard the ageless adage of “Show, Don’t tell,” and if you’ve heard of it, chances are you’ve rolled your eyes and squinted at the ambiguity of the advice.
There are times when it is beneficial in your work to draw out a scene, to show the character’s completing the actions and to have them react to situations. If done right, readers following along will follow the rhythms of your characters; they’ll feel angry when the protagonist is angry, sad when he is sad.
However, while showing vs. telling is crucial to building suspense in your work, it is something that will be underlying throughout your stories and novels.
Tension, on the other hand, and the building of it as a plot device, is a much more digestible concept. Tension can happen in your story in a variety of different ways.
(TL;DR) To summarize:
Showing, Not Telling leads to a higher level of empathy and engagement felt by the reader toward your characters. If you can show your characters in action, your reader will feel more invested in them.
You can create Tension in one of two ways: having readers know something the characters do not, or having the protagonist know something the others do not
Create Conflictby asking yourself first what your character wants to achieve, and then by placing a series of obstacles in their way of achieving it.
Editor's note: Tevis runs our How to Write Short Stories online Workshop. Check it out here.
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
June 12, 2020
you forgot number 3. It’s annoying not seeing “3.”. Keep that in mind. Overall nice article, a little short.
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Michael Pietrzak
June 12, 2020
Thanks dsfasd (if that is your real name!), I fixed it.