Talking and Writng are the same, sort of!

I entitled todays thoughts as untitled at first until I came up with a title. Let's face it I write down the jumbled words swimming in my head. this is monday. I have no jumbled words. In fact I have no words at all. lol Not true, I always have words.

When I was younger I talked too much. Constantly. I have three brothers. One good looking Darcy type, one nerd, then me and then the baby. No sisters. My oldest brother rarely spoke. He stared at us all. My nerdy brother and myself held contests to see who could talk the longest without taking a breath. Well, that is my mom said we did. lol My baby brother who is 7 years younger than me (and my oldest brother is 7 years older). Well my youngest brother probably spoke in the normal amount. Not too much, not too often, and definitely more than my oldest brother - shoot, a new born baby cooing speaks more than my oldest brother.

Well, over the years I noticed, I talk less and my other talkative brother now talks even less than me. My oldest brother talks more. Still it is not much but it is more than the Hello, Good meal, and Goodbye he used to say when he visited for dinner. He now adds, How's the boys? How long are you staying in Florida? Well it is a start to a meaningful relationship. lol

I used to measure if anyone had stopped listening to me by well stopping in mid-sentence. If the person did not react I just quit talking. Over time I learned how to get the most out of the words from my head. Say just enough to keep them interested, but not too much to bore them to tears. Which brings me up to my writing.

Write just enough to keep the interest going. Don't tell to much. It is the old Show vs. Tell theory in writing. Show them through actions and body language. Don't tell them everything. It gets boring. Learn to spit out a story using either the mouth or the fingers in such a way the listener or the reader moves a step closer. She needs to hear/read the next word. That is my goal. Get my reader to move closer to the monitor. Share only the amount of information which keeps them planted in their chair.

I don't always succeed. Sometimes I bore myself with parts of my chapter. Especially my early chapters. I am learning as I go. I guess I could have taken some classes to learn the "rules" to writing. But since I am self taught in everything I do, this is no exception. I like being self taught. Now this does not mean that I use no tools in my learning. Oh, quite the contrare! I spent an enormous amount of time researching "How to Write" and almost as much as I have actual spent on writing. I have read about Show vs. Tell, Expository, Narrative, dialogue and tagging, action beats, pacing, story and chapter arc, suspense and tension, cause and effect, body language, and some I can't remember. I study writer's websites. They share loads of "how-to's" One uses an index card system for each scene in the book. Another prefers the outline. Yet another just writes and sees where it takes him. but they all agree - show don't tell. And that was the lesson I had to learn with my conversations. When I was young I bored everyone. And then, I started withholding the minutia of detail and kept them close. They would on ocassion take that step closer and I knew right then, I had them. lol

So, I will go back and reread all my show vs. tell stuff and see if I have slipped back into a bad habit. I want my readers to lean a little closer since the words they will be reading are becoming, well, really suspenseful. More to come!

gayle