To compare "show don't tell," to tell lies, show the truth is invalid. Tell lies, show the truth is just another tool in the professional writer's toolbox.
"No, I don't love you. You must leave now."
But her eyesbrows were drawing together and her foot tapped. She felt something for him. "Don't worry, there are guards about but if I make too much noise they'll think it a Nightingale. If I fall, they'll make a fair cushion."
"Please be careful." She leaned over the balcony squeezing the railing.
He bounced up. "So you do love me." He hopped back in her suite and put his arms around her.
"You know I do."
Later in the scene (which includes a kiss) she tells the truth about why he must leave.
[The dialogue comes from my vague memory of a famous scene from the 1938 version of Robin Hood.]
A subcategory of this technique involves the awful "info dump." If you must use an info dump, because the story can not be told any other way that you know, [IMHO, there's always a way] have one of the two in dialogue lie, have the other a body language expert or just plain tuned in notice subtle descepincies. As an example, the woman is a NCS agent and the guy is from the NSA. They have just been assigned to each other and there's a bit of distrust, a bit of lone wolfing, etc. Oh and a bit of chemistry, right?
This week I want to present one of the songs from my new novel A MORE PERFECT UNION. For this story I felt it worked to set the mood for each chapter. I listened to the song and wrote. I recommended to readers who like to listen to music while reading that they consider my suggestions per chapter.
The song for Chapter Seventeen: Ray Charles, Hit the Road, Jack, 1961
"No, I don't love you. You must leave now."
But her eyesbrows were drawing together and her foot tapped. She felt something for him. "Don't worry, there are guards about but if I make too much noise they'll think it a Nightingale. If I fall, they'll make a fair cushion."
"Please be careful." She leaned over the balcony squeezing the railing.
He bounced up. "So you do love me." He hopped back in her suite and put his arms around her.
"You know I do."
Later in the scene (which includes a kiss) she tells the truth about why he must leave.
[The dialogue comes from my vague memory of a famous scene from the 1938 version of Robin Hood.]
A subcategory of this technique involves the awful "info dump." If you must use an info dump, because the story can not be told any other way that you know, [IMHO, there's always a way] have one of the two in dialogue lie, have the other a body language expert or just plain tuned in notice subtle descepincies. As an example, the woman is a NCS agent and the guy is from the NSA. They have just been assigned to each other and there's a bit of distrust, a bit of lone wolfing, etc. Oh and a bit of chemistry, right?
This week I want to present one of the songs from my new novel A MORE PERFECT UNION. For this story I felt it worked to set the mood for each chapter. I listened to the song and wrote. I recommended to readers who like to listen to music while reading that they consider my suggestions per chapter.
The song for Chapter Seventeen: Ray Charles, Hit the Road, Jack, 1961
A powerful Tip. Thanks.
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