Today, we continued crafting our creative fiction, poetry, and non-fiction pieces for our 2016 anthology project. As I did writing conferences with some of you today, I loved seeing the variation and engagement with which you are writing, and I can't wait to see all of our writing come together to create this year's book!
Our mini-lesson at the start of today's class was about showing rather than telling. We discussed how writing that engages readers helps to vividly show the scene--the action, the dialogue, the color, the smells, the sights, the emotion--rather than simply tell the reader what is occurring.
As a wildly goofy and goofily wild example of how showing and telling are different, here's an example from our front board that show the same plot-line in two very different ways. the first simply tells, while the second shows (albeit strangely so!):
Jim McJimerson was so angry when he saw his girlfriend, Bertha McBerthanator, kissing Prune Prunerson.
And here's the example that actually shows us something--however weird that something is:
Jim McJimerson walked into his massive closet, full of orange suspenders; to his great shock, Bertha McBberthanator and Prune Prunerson had managed to attach themselves to the ceiling, where they were passionately kissing.
"Holy suspenders!" Jim roared, as he fell to his knees in anguish.
So, to help us show rather than tell, be sure to include:
COLORS
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
EMOTIONS
PLACE (SETTING)
DIALOGUE
Peace!
Mr. R
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