NaNoWriMo: Writing Exercise for Showing v. Telling

This semester I’m co-teaching Creative Writing, and we just wrapped up my favorite unit—short fiction.

We always do a fun lesson on showing versus telling, a critical skill for any creative writer.

NaNo friends, as you’re chipping away at your daily word count, perhaps these tips will help:

Take whatever scene you’re working on.

1. Show us the senses: What does your character see, hear, smell, taste, and touch?
2. Show us the action: What is your character doing? What’s her motivation, conflict, tension?
3. Shows us the feels: Don’t tell us your character is angry; let us see her face flush and her jaw clench. Don’t tell us she’s tired; let us see her rub her eyes, the words on the screen unfocused, her eyelids heavy and closing against her will.

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One of the fastest ways to know if you’re showing or telling is to check your verbs.

‘To be’ verbs tell us. (e.g.: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been)

Action verbs show us.

In class, I gave my students the following paragraph and asked them to rewrite a scene, showing instead of telling.

Maybe you’d find the exercise as fun as they did?

Jane is a timid freshman at State University. The youngest of six children, she misses the comfort of her home and her small graduating class of twelve. Her new roommate, Carol, is nice, and although the young man in her freshman math class makes her blush, she is thinking of him more and more.

Carol says she should give him a sign, but Jane isn’t sure how to do that. College is so different from Small Town, America. But maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

Using what you’ve been told about Jane, Carol, and the intriguing classmate, write a more descriptive paragraph, an action scene, or a conversation with dialogue that demonstrates one of the following:

• How Jane feels
• What Jane’s dorm, roommate, or male classmate look like
• What Jane decides to do

You have full license to write in whatever genre you wish. Is this a love story? The start of a mystery? A feel-good inspiration? Is it set in our world? Another world? Are these humans? Etc.

Put whatever twist you like, but be sure your scene is showing and not telling.

Example:

Jane unlocked the door to her dorm room and dropped her backpack next to the built-in, oak-colored desk that only masked the laminate particle board.

The memory of she and her five siblings framed in a pose in a field of white cotton bulbs welcomed her. She stared at the glass until at last she saw her reflection, reminding her of her new home, her new season. 

Click to Tweet: Writers: need a break from your #NaNoWriMo2016 WIP? Try this fun showing v. telling exercise. 

NaNoWriMo - 2016

Can you tell I’ve been writing lately? :)

When I pause and take the time to put pen to paper, He causes the words to flow.

Remember my September take-aways?

Be you. Be still. Be present. Be willing.

My journal’s cover design is simple—a light brown paper cover that looks a bit like recycled card board—and in the center, one word: Write.

It commands, implores, urges, reminds, and encourages me to steward my time with writing.

November 1 begins NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month.

Last year, I started a new novel, and even though I didn’t meet my NaNo goals of 50K words in 30 days, I took the time to be intentional with my writing.

That’s my goal again this year.

I told you this summer about the contest I won. One of the editors who read my submission liked my writing style, but didn’t think the story was a good fit for their typical publications.

I agree completely; I had a different target in mind, and what I submitted doesn’t really fit what this particular publisher does.

But now that I know what they look for, and now that I’ve made that good connection with that editor, I’d like to finish a story idea with them in mind—something on the shorter side that’s inspirational romance but more subtly Christian.

So that’s my plan for November—to finish!

I am continually reminded of what Jen Hatmaker said at the Belong Conference: “Jesus didn’t ask us to be famous; He asked us to be faithful.”

My part means doing just as my journal cover requires me to do—Write!

Every week, I get to teach and be an administrator; every week I’m stewarding those gifts. So I don’t mean to imply that I’m not doing what I love or that I’m not right where He’s called me.

But in the midst of that, in the middle of this fall season, He’s asking me to be faithful to write. To exercise the creativity He’s put inside of me.

My short novel’s working title is Facing the Farmer, and I'm still working on the hook:

Blake Griffen might feel high and mighty in his twenty-foot green combine, and his family might raise corn on half the land in Elton, Texas. But his mischievous acts have gone too far for Emerson Lane. She devises a counter attack to confront her enemy, but is her strategy for a face-off thwarted by her heart’s wayward fancy?

All of this is, of course, a work-in-progress, but please feel free to share your ideas and responses.

Any other NaNoWriMo attempters out there? Care to share your novel ideas? 

Click to Tweet: Calling all #NaNoWriMo buddies. @Grace2Write shares her WIP. Care to share yours? #NaNoWriMo2016 

Lessons from Another #NaNoWriMoFail

NaNoWriMo ended Monday, and I can safely put another #NaNoWriMoFail in the books. 

But before you stop reading, this is not a self-deprecating post. I made it to almost 11,000 words, and I’m proud of that accomplishment. I spent the first 10 days of the month stressed out because I started out behind, and then the Lord, ever so gently, asked me who I was performing for. Ouch. 

I stayed behind for the rest of the month, but it wasn’t about competing, or proving, or performing anymore. The goal was to write, and I did—when I could.

NaNoWriMo has this mantra that one should write 50,000 words—regardless of whether they are ‘good’ words or not. Just get them down. Just. Write. Write. Write.

I’m not necessarily opposed to this exercise in writing, but for me, I decided to make the month about being diligent to my writing—and for me, being diligent about writing means I don’t waste words for the sake of a word count. I’m a thoughtful writer—and, as I’m learning, that makes me a slow writer. I imagine scenes in my head for days before I write them down. When I write, I write a lot at once—but I can’t keep that up every day. It’s too much.

One of the big takeaways I had from the ACFW conference this year was creating a writing plan or a writing schedule. I talked to one person who told me Frank Peretti writes 250 words a day. That’s not much—and seems so do-able—and it allows for 90,000 words a year: a book-length manuscript.

Others, I learned, try to write 3,000 words a week; some even said 5,000 words a week.

I wrote almost 11,000 words in a month, and I feel good about that—it’s slightly less than 3,000 a week, and it’s slightly more than 250 words a day.

And you know what else? I wrote. I worked. I thoughtfully considered my new story plot and my characters and my scenes and my dialogue. And I wrote some more.

I was reading Rachelle Gardner’s post about rejection this morning. I especially like reading the comments section on the B&S blog, and I was reminded that if I genuinely feel called to write, if I feel like it’s the gift He’s given me, then I can’t quit—regardless of the rejection I might face. By the same measure, I can’t make writing about me—my success or promotion.

In For the Love, Jen Hatmaker says it like this: “Run your race. Maybe you need to invest in your gifts. Take a class. Go to a conference. Sign up for a seminar. Start that small business. Put that website up. Build in some space. Say yes to that thing. Work with a mentor. Stop minimizing what you are good at and throw yourself into it with no apologies. Do you know who will do this for you? No one. You are it. Don’t bury that talent, because the only thing fear yields is one dormant gift in a shallow grave” (p. 33). 

NaNoWriMo is over, but my story is not complete. That status for my first manuscript is still uncertain, but I am not done.

Being a writer is about more than writing. And writing a novel is about more than one month of the year.

I’ve said before—I’m willing to work, to edit, to take the hard words and the real truth and criticism, to collaborate, to re-do, and to listen.

My part, for now, is to write. To do anything else is to bury the talent.

 What gift has God given you to steward? Do you need to resurrect the talent from a shallow grave?  [Click to Tweet!]

Writer-friends:  Advice for me? What's your writing plan? How do you keep your "I won't quit" attitude? [Click to Tweet!]

Wading Through My NaNo Novel's Message

I started #NaNoWriMo this week, and as I'm writing a book about a broken marriage, I'm reminded I need to guard and protect my own marriage this month.

In the opening paragraph, my MC is annoyed with her husband:

Kaylee sighed as she picked up Justin's underwear from the bathroom floor and tossed it into the hamper. Seriously? She was still amazed that after thirteen years of marriage, the single most difficult feat for her husband each morning was to overcome the three-foot Everest that separated the floor and his laundry basket.

When Howell read it, he joked, "Babe, everyone is going to think I don't pick up my underwear now."

I laughed and promised to set everyone straight and then went back to tapping on my keyboard.

[Let the record show, by the way, that my husband is perfectly capable and deft when it comes to putting his clothes in the hamper.]

The novel I will write this month is not about my own marriage. It's not even about anyone's marriage in particular.

But it is about marriage, and it's a story that's on my heart to write because I care deeply about the success of our marriages today (obviously—or we wouldn't blog on the topic each week :)).

Howell's comment, which I initially did dismiss, does give me pause to consider how I might be careful to protect our marriage these 30 days.

As I devote extra time to writing, I want to be sure he and I still connect every day. And as I get into my characters' heads—two people who have created bad habits of unresolved arguments and snarky one-liners—I need to guard my own thoughts about my husband, whom I want to think highly of and whom I want to speak lovingly toward at all times.


Pray for me, friends, as I wade through this novel's message, and if you're doing #NaNoWriMo, share your first paragraph, too! :) [Tweet This.]

p.s. If this post seems short (a whopping 353 words), it's because I've devoted all my words this week to NaNoWriMo! Ha!

Calling all NaNoWriMo buddies!

I have decided to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. And since I joined this week, I’ve only had a few days of #NaNoPrep!

I signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2011, and I was all set with a full chapter outline for my novel. I was very gung ho on Day 1, but that November ended up being a terrible month for us. We faced so much loss and grief in one month—and I don’t really care to go back to that month, but let’s just say, by December, I was broken-hearted:

Failed #NaNoWriMo terribly. November ended up being a month of death, loss, tragedy,and sadness. Now, to pick up and keep writing...

— Laura C. Brandenburg (@Grace2Write) December 7, 2011

The bitter taste that first experience left in my mouth had nothing to do with NaNoWriMo, but I’ve stayed away from any other attempts since 2011.

About a week ago I read Laurie Tomlinson’s post about NaNoWriMo, and I felt inspired to try it again. I only wrote maybe 15,000 words during my 2011 attempt, rather than 50,000 words, but those 15,000 words were the start of Restless Heart, a novel I just sent to an agent-hopeful.

15,000 is not 50,000—and, to be honest, I probably re-wrote most of what I created that month, BUT 15,000 is better than zero.

As I’m waiting to hear back on Book 1, I don’t want to just sit on my hands for the rest of this year. It’s time to jump on Book 2. 

The series is set in Baird, Texas--a beloved town close to my heart. I’ve only done a little planning for the second book but here’s a first draft of the hook:

Justin and Kaylee's comfortable marriage faces unexpected turmoil when, after thirteen years of marriage, the high school sweethearts suddenly aren't on the same page anymore. With three small hearts at stake, Justin knows their marriage is worth fighting for, but can he convince Kaylee to stay?

Friends, are any of you attempting #NaNoWriMo this year? Let’s support each other in our endeavors! [Tweet this.]

Find me on the NaNoWriMo site as laura.c.brandenburg. I'm going to need some Writing Buddies! :)