*Yup, I know the extra ‘m’ is not grammatical.
I’m making a point
Some months ago in a writerly Facebook group, someone lamented at her discovery while editing her own work. “Turns out,” she wrote, “I’m a fan of passive writing and telling not showing.” 😰
While I’m
paraphrasing and also omitting some of her original pulling-one’s-own-hair in-shame
post, I will quote my response post in full because I don’t need my own permission
to quote me:
“Passive construction and telling have their
place. Just make sure they don't sit and stay where they are not serving their
purpose. Passive is what you use when you want to fuzzy something and cover
with fog. (Someone *was killed,* no idea by whom.)
Telling is an economical way to get through
parts so the showing parts get to shine by contrast.”
The first writerly mistake is not knowing the rules and why they’re there. The second is to treat writing advice as absolute.
You can quote me on it. 👆
Getting off the preacher’s pedestal now.
5 comments:
Mirka,
You're right. There are rules and there is the breaking of rules for a specific purpose. The important thing is to know what the rule is and why you're intentionally breaking it, as opposed to simply making mistakes.
Good advice from an excellent writer. Thank you.
Preach! That's why I like deliberate writing practice.
Yes, yes, and yes! You have to know the rules, but many of the rules aren't meant to be absolutes.
Ha ha! re: "You can quote me on it."
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