Writing June 21

Okay another lesson or a comment on writing itself.

I think I have discovered one reason why writers always give a Main Character a friend. There could be half a dozen reasons-including using up space in an interesting way and making the MC more human. But my reason here is to Show something instead of Telling. For those who don't know Telling is more narrative or to say he felt this way or that way but Show describes how he reacts that shows he feels that way. The reader can figure out the emotions by his actions or describing his facial expression. SHow and Tell works in most areas of writing not just emotions but that is what this is about.

So instead of a MC saying I don't have a boy friend--in this case it was a female MC and she didn't---her friend could come to her and say "Hey, that officer is cute and he likes you, you should go out with him, in fact I keep saying you need to go out with a few guys...you don't have to become serious with them just have some fun." The MC can then react probably by saying "yeah he's cute and doesn't mind my freakishness but I'm too busy and I can have fun on my own."

If It's said right the reader can see that this is an ongoing argument and that my MC has a fear about dating guys. Later the friend might say "He's not like those jerky jocks in high school that only wanted inside your pants, this guy's cool."

So that means I need to go back and redo some segments of what I have written so far. Or I could have the friend arrive back into town so she hasn't been there until chapter six. But I would still need to mention her. And in my case it goes along better with the Novel that I am sort of basing my character on. There are a huge amount of differences between the two but that Novel is part of the inspiration for my MC. And it includes a good friend for the MC in that tale.

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And I have been even more impressed with the idea that we as writers need to put in more of the five human senses, plus some of the background setting--that which is around: desert, buildings, space station, a room etc, around the MC. Don't need to describe everything just enough so readers will know if it's inside or outside and what type of inside or outside. The reader will fill in the blanks with his-her own imagination.

David Farland the new reader at WotF has put out a Ten Reasons for rejections list along with a post that explains why some stories won't go above HM An side here but I will be putting in links to those two posts...And a Sam over at Universe Annex also left a post behind that explained what Show is and both David and Sam include The Senses and setting in their sharing. Which would at least partially explain why Dean Wesley Smith says to just include all five human senses every two pages and don't worry about Show.

One, more then likely can put in too many senses and setting but at the same time many new writers do not put in enough of either.

This is getting a bit long so more later on both sometime.