Author

LATRAME

@latrame

4w ago

There is an art to not telling.

She closed the apartment door, dropped the key in the mailbox.

Three years later, she came back for the box that was still in the cellar.

Everything that matters just happened between those two sentences, and you read it, even though it was never written. That's the ellipsis : the story keeps going while the text stays quiet.

Popular science

ellipsis · narration · writingcraft · writingadvice

Author

LATRAME

@latrame

5w ago

Telling : he was lying.

Showing : he answered a little too fast. Then he repeated the question, as if buying time for the next answer.

The word "lying" appears nowhere, and yet the reader knows before the character across the table does. That's the whole exercise : remove the label, keep the gesture, and let the reader reach the conclusion half a second before you hand it to them. That half second is the pleasure of reading.

Popular science

showdonttell · writingstyle · writingadvice · writingcraft

Author

LATRAME

@latrame

6w ago

Two characters answering each other word for word, like two well-mannered fencers. Polite, symmetrical, dead.

Real dialogue stumbles. Someone answers the previous question. Someone isn't listening.

Popular science

writingadvice · dialogue · writingcraft · creativewriting