Show Don’t Tell
A cheat sheet to strengthen your writing
I love to write. But I’ve been told that I use too many passive words and spend most of my time telling a story rather than showing it.
My argument is that I am telling a story! But it falls on deaf ears as editors remind me that readers want to be shown rather than told.
They advise with every story you write, return to remove filler words such as “just”, “very” and “really”. They are meaningless and the writing equivalent to “um”, “er”, and “uh” in speech.
Go through the story and delete the word “that”. If a sentence makes sense after removing “that” cut it.
Other words that add nothing to a sentence include “totally”, “definitely”, and “actually”.
The easiest way to clean up a story is to use the “Find” function in Microsoft Word and delete these words.
After cutting fillers, return to write stronger sentences by asking,
Can the camera see it?
If a camera can’t see it, rewrite using descriptions to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Ask yourself, “What does the emotion or feeling look like?”
Here’s a handy list to refer to if you get stuck. Use these ideas to make your writing more descriptive and…
