The Art of Narrative Craft
Stories that provide definitive examples of showing, not telling, are Hemingway’s “Indian Camp” and Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” “Indian Camp” is a coming of age story told through the close 3rd Person POV of a young boy who accompanies his doctor-father to an Indian camp to assist in an emergency birth. It’s important to note the way Hemingway never leaves the Continue reading STORIES FOR SHOW AND TELL
I. NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN: A couple are seated at an outdoor café. At first they seem in harmony, but something changes the mood. Write this scene, with showing, not telling. II. WRITING INSIDE VERSUS WRITING OUTSIDE : Tell your story from ‘inside,’ not from ‘outside.’ An example: Matt and Samantha were driving down a lonely highway on a cold February night. It was after midnight and they were Continue reading PROMPTS FOR SHOW AND TELL
IV. SHOW AND TELL: Learning writers in workshop settings often hear the phrase ‘show this, don’t tell it,’ and they may wonder what this means. Even when the concept is explained, the learning writer may struggle to differentiate between a passage that is ‘told’ and the same passage that is ‘shown.’ Perhaps one way to illustrate the difference is to Continue reading IV. SHOW AND TELL
Exemplary stories for the 1st Person Point of View include Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” and Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” Both of these stories present what is called the unreliable narrator, which you will discover when you read them. An exemplary story for the little-used (because difficult to sustain) 2nd Person POV would be “How To Continue reading STORIES FOR POINT OF VIEW
I. Write a 1st Person POV narrative that begins with this line: I know it didn’t happen that way, because I was there. II. Write a 3rd Person Limited POV narrative that begins with this line: There was nothing s/he could do. III. Write a 3rd Person Objective (Fly on the Wall) narrative for this scenario: A couple, Chris and Continue reading PROMPTS FOR POINT OF VIEW
The voice of the story is the point of view from which it is told, and there are three main choices, identified (grammatically) by the personal pronouns used for each, with important sub-categories in the last, as follows: 1. FIRST PERSON (I or ME): When the narrator is speaking directly to the reader, she uses the 1st person POV, and Continue reading III. POINT OF VIEW