[ SECRET POST #3239 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3239 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.
[Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani]


__________________________________________________



03.
[Law & Order SVU/OZ]


__________________________________________________



04.
[Unforgotten, The Fall]


__________________________________________________



05.
[Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything]


__________________________________________________



06.
[Markiplier]


__________________________________________________



07.
[Law & Order SVU (John Munch)]


__________________________________________________



08.
[Kaiji]








Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 035 secrets from Secret Submission Post #463.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[(Anonymous)]

In my experience, most common writing advice that's treated as gospel is not at all objective, and is based mainly on the personal preferences of the person giving the advice. A lot of the "mistakes" that beginning writers are told to "NEVER EVER EVER DO OR YOU ARE A HACK" are A) stylistic choices that can and have been used well, and B) in many cases would have been considered good writing a century, or even a few decades ago.

"Show, don't tell" is a classic example that comes to mind. I see this phrase mindlessly parroted so often that I honestly wonder if anyone even knows way the phrase means at this point.

Ideally, I think it should mean: "If you want the reader to know that your protagonist is a good person, show them doing good things instead of having other characters talk them up."

But more often I see it used to mean: "MINIMALIST PROSE IS BAD. YOU MUST GIVE EXTREMELY DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF EVERY SINGLE TINY ACTION AND FACIAL EXPRESSION TO CONVEY WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS ARE THINKING AND FEELING AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT."

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[kallanda_lee]

Show, don't tell is more a movie thing, imho. And for good reason, because you can't show thoughts. In books - telling can be good.

Also minimalist prose is great.

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[(Anonymous)]

I was just thinking this same thing. I'm really sensitive to too much "telling" in film. I've been watching some really good, subtle, intelligently written shows lately, and then I tried watching the first episode of Supergirl and it was just so. much. telling. Not a single occurrence in the plot could go unexplained, even when it didn't require an explanation because what was happening was already pretty obvious. And every characters feelings and reactions had to be talked about.

It's such a weak way of telling a film narrative, IMO.

Whereas in books, it really depends on the style and strength of the writing.

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[(Anonymous)]

But more often I see it used to mean: "MINIMALIST PROSE IS BAD. YOU MUST GIVE EXTREMELY DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF EVERY SINGLE TINY ACTION AND FACIAL EXPRESSION TO CONVEY WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS ARE THINKING AND FEELING AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT."

The young woman pauses to read the black text on the grey-pink background. A soft hum can be heard in the room. Her brow furrows ever so slightly, and she tilts her head...


Like that? Yeah. You really don't need all of that all the time.

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[comma_chameleon]

Wilkie Collins would argue. ;) That man could take thirty pages to describe a shoe.

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Some idiot went after me over a minimalist section of a story I wrote. They were all "OMG HOW DARE YOU ONLY MENTION A COBBLESTONE PATH AND TREE" and then later criticized my use of "adjacent" because apparently humans don't use this word. I tried to take them seriously but I couldn't get past the Chrono Trigger/South Park crossover SCRIPT FIC that was in their favorites, with a sincere "LOL THAT WUZ SOO FUNEEEEEEEEEE *stroke stroke fingerbang*" review they had left for said fic.

I'm not the best or most descriptive writer, I'll admit. But seriously, it was like they were trying their damnedest to find something to shit on.

Re: Everything is way more subjective than you think it is.

[(Anonymous)]

show don't tell gets thrown around a lot because so many writers start off just telling things instead of showing them. Like, massive amounts of summary and dialogue without any sort of description whatsoever. And yes, they tell what the character is like instead of actually having the character do things, and most of the time what they say the character is like isn't what they are writing.

Show don't tell has entered the realm of "jargon" sadly.

and then you've got amateurs leading amateurs which is sort of like the blind leading the blind so they have heard these phrases and they don't know what they mean exactly but they spout them off anyway. Look how badly mary sue has gotten twisted to mean "any character I don't like"

there is a place for minimalist prose and rarely a place for purple prose (mostly if you are being paid by the word place for purple prose)... in my opinion.