Jabrosky
Banned
My reviewers have told me I have a problem with telling too. It's not that I don't try to show; in fact, I'm actually reluctant to explicitly state characters' emotional states (e.g. "she felt sad" or "he enjoyed this") precisely because it sounds too telly. I think my issue is that I'm not sure what I must show versus what I can safely tell.
For example, I don't like going into depth about my characters' backstories, because I feel that delays me from the story's central conflict. I want to get to the Inciting Incident as soon as possible. However, sometimes I wonder if I should spend more time setting things up and showing the characters' backstories. I realize there is the solution of writing the main conflict first and then adding the setup later, but as a linear thinker I have a hard time writing scenes out of order.
For example, I don't like going into depth about my characters' backstories, because I feel that delays me from the story's central conflict. I want to get to the Inciting Incident as soon as possible. However, sometimes I wonder if I should spend more time setting things up and showing the characters' backstories. I realize there is the solution of writing the main conflict first and then adding the setup later, but as a linear thinker I have a hard time writing scenes out of order.