Read the passage carefully.1. Show Don’t Tell is a technique used in pretty much every form of creative writing. It
Read the passage carefully.
1. Show Don’t Tell is a technique used in pretty much every form of creative writing. It is a skill that once mastered will take your writing to the next level. It’s a way of allowing your readers to experience your writing through actions, thoughts, feelings and the five senses, as opposed to just rambling off a lengthy and unengaging factual explanation. People read fiction to get away from the real world and to experience something different. This is commonly known as escapism, when you want to get away from the humdrum of school and work and have a much more entertaining time in Middle Earth or on some futuristic space station. Good writers show these details through actions, thoughts and feelings in order to make their stories more engaging. Read on to find out just how they (and you) can do that.
2. Of course, Show don’t Tell is not a tool that needs to be used all the time, there are plenty of occasions to simply tell, such as long passages of time. It’s hard to show that without clogging up the word count and slowing down the pace of your story. So how do you show instead of tell? Here are three key aspects of storytelling and how best to demonstrate them: emotions, dialogue and setting.
3. When someone is mad at you they don’t usually say, “Oh, I’m really angry at you now,” because that would be telling. So how do you know that they’re mad? You see the signs—not in what they say but how they say it and the change in their body language. Their eyes might narrow, their lips may thin or their jaw clench. Their voice may take on a different, colder, or harsher tone, they may raise their voice. Their hands may close into fists, their posture might suddenly stiffen. These are all signs that somebody’s angry—all different ways that you can show it. People don’t go around announcing their emotions to people in real life, we learn to notice these signs, so if in your narrative you write that Susan was really sad, the reader isn’t engaged because there’s nothing to make their brain work. However, if you say that Susan’s bottom lip started to tremble, or that she had to blink away tears, your reader can infer from that information that she’s sad. It doesn’t sound like much but these are the little things that keep your audience engaged.
4. Yes, it can seem a little bit counter-intuitive to mention dialogue here, and you might be wondering how to show when a character is literally telling somebody something when they’re speaking.
5. Dialogue is one of the most effective ways to show something in a story, as it not only drives the plot forward but is a great tool for revealing character. The words we choose to say and how we say them speak volumes about us, so it is vitally important you think about the words that your characters will use.
6. One of the best examples of this is from the 1964 film Goldfinger. Secret agent James Bond is at the mercy of the villain, Goldfinger, when there is this wonderful exchange which on the surface looks like a terrible example of telling rather than showing.
Trả lời cho các câu 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 dưới đây:
What is the passage mainly about?
Đáp án đúng là: C
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: C
According to paragraph 1, what does the word they in “how they (and you) can do that” refer to?
Đáp án đúng là: C
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: C
In paragraph 2, which of the following is NOT a suggested component of showing instead of telling?
Đáp án đúng là: B
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: B
In paragraph 3, what is the phrase make their brain work closest in meaning to?
Đáp án đúng là: B
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: B
In paragraph 5, why is dialogue considered an effective tool in storytelling?
Đáp án đúng là: C
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: C
According to paragraph 6, what can be inferred about the example from Goldfinger?
Đáp án đúng là: A
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: A
According to the passage, what is the main benefit of using the “Show Don’t Tell” technique in creative writing?
Đáp án đúng là: D
Đang cập nhật ...
Đáp án cần chọn là: D
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