being a writer. {show. don't tell.}

Character's are awesome.
No really.
Amaze-balls.
But... then we seem to have problems with the delivery of them.

Since I get a lot of read requests on Wattpad (even though I say I don't take them anymore) I sometimes sit down and take a glance at recent people asking me to read their work ...

I remember how I used to write.

Painful.
Disturbing.
Downright... bad.

Writing takes time and I hate to think that in a year or two from now I'm going to still look back and cringe at my work but right now I'm just trying my best and learning... moving forward. Most of all, letting my characters be themselves and share their story. tell it.

A lot of people may take that too literally but since I get this question a lot, I thought a blog (instead of my rambling in a video) may work better for a blog-post.

So here's the example of SHOW don't TELL Character mistakes.

"Harry is a tall, six foot nine basketball player that no one likes but he's super talented and just does his own thing, hoping one day he'd get a scholarship or something that would take him out of the middle of nowhere." 

A lot of people would open a book like that. When I see that. I want to run.
How would I open a totally flat character like Harry :P

Here we go...

Harry Port walked in the doors of his highschool, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder as he glanced down at the university papers in his hands. 
"How's it going, loser?" 
He looked up as a tall boy of equal stature shoved into him. Knocking his papers out of his hands and on to the floor.
Harry looked down at them and grumbled, "Leave me alone, Barney." 
 "University? You won't get in... stop trying. You're not that good." 
Harry sighed as Barney walked off and bent down to pick up the papers.

Wow. That story seems so interesting doesn't it ? lol Not.

Anyway, I still basically accomplished what I set out in really boring blurb in the beginning but instead of "TELLING" people what was going on, I showed them it.

You can do this with everything, this is also what keeps people reading. You don't need to tell anyone anything. Just have events that help people figure out the characters. Pull and Draw in readership. No throat shoving needed.

Hope this helped!

Bella xx