‘Always show, not tell,’ is a big fat lie. If you always show, you’ll have half a novel of descriptive words and flowy sentences that will be hard to read.
Here is a quick tip:
Show emotion.
Tell feelings.
Don’t tell us ‘she was sad.’ Show us- ‘Her lip trembled, and her eyes burned as she tried to keep her tears at bay.’Don’t show us ‘her eyelids were heavy- too heavy. Her limbs could barely function and she couldn’t stop yawning.’ Tell us - ‘she felt tired that morning.’
Showing emotion will bring the reader closer to the characters, to understand their reactions better. But I don’t need to read about how slow she was moving due to tiredness.
Likewise, when you do show, keep it to a max three sentences. Two paragraphs of ‘how she was sad,’ with no dialogue or inner thought is just as boring.
Saying that a disabled child or adult “will never live independently” is such a slap in the face. I think it’s unacceptable and I think it’s lazy. No one will ever live independently! No one is living independent of medical care, emotional support, and goods/services provided by others. Humans are a deeply interdependent species. Disabled people are sometimes rendered ~dependent~ specifically on a state or family apparatus in a way that makes them vulnerable to abuse or exploitation, but this isn’t the only way to experience “”dependency.”“
Some people are just told that they are “independent” because their lives and needs are normalized to such an extent that the enormous amount of support they receive is invisible.
- hey guys whats up
how’d you make a blank post?
- you make a bulleted list and press tab until the text either is all the way on the right or it disappears depending on the resolution of the computer it’s viewed on. also, it doesn’t work on mobile.
please tell me
Bilbo: wait I get it now. The dragon is a metaphor for greed and power. We need to ‘defeat’ it by being humble when we get the treasure.
Thorin: Bilbo, for the last time, it’s a real dragon and it has my gold
It’s living in my house, Bilbo
For some ungodly reason “it’s living in my house, Bilbo” struck the same mental note for me as “I’m dying, Squirtle”, and now in my head Bidoof is voiced by Richard Armitage. Help.
Pull the trigger, Piglet
That’s not better.
