Renni Browne and Dave King (Self-Editing for Fiction Writers) hilariously rewrite the beginning of The Great Gatsby, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had decided to tell instead of show . . .
The conversation was barely begun before I discovered that our host was more than simply a stranger to most of his guests. He was an enigma, a mystery. And this was a crowd that doted on mysteries.
The authors give a longer example, which I am condensing for purposes of this blog. Even comparing just a short excerpt from Fitzgerald's actual opening lines shows us immediately how much more interesting they are than a mere narrative summary . . .
"I like to come," Lucille said. "I never care what I do, so I always have a good time. When I was here last, I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and address—within a week I got a package from Croirier's with a new evening gown in it."
"Did you keep it?" asked Jordan.
"Sure I did. I was going to wear it tonight, but it was too big in the bust and had to be altered. It was gas blue lavender beads. Two-hundred and sixty-five dollars."
If you're like me—and most readers—you like the real version instead of the "telling" example by Browne and King. They suggest, and I agree, that movies and television have changed the way we want stories presented. Maybe if readers in the Victorian era could have read fiction in a modern style, where showing the reader instead of telling the reader is the norm, they would have liked their books written the modern way. Hard to say.
But I think we learn something from this reflection, as readers and as writers.
As writers, we realize our readers have minds, minds that yearn for common respect. Book nerds want to be thought of as discerning, able to comprehend character and theme without a high school English teacher explaining it to them. And the kinds of prose that involve showing are more interesting than simple narrative description. Dialogue: who doesn't enjoy overhearing a good conversation? Action: when done right, never bores.
And, honestly, showing is more fun to write than telling. I mean, art is about elevating style. A scribble can become modern art in the right hands. It's being that magician with the ability to make words levitate off the page that is so damned gratifying.
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