“Show Don’t Tell” Resources & Advice...

How do you find a balance between “show, don’t tell” and “readers might not catch/understand this subtle concept or showing it would be too convoluted or more open to interpretation than it needs to be”? It doesn’t help that everyone encourages more showing even if it swallowing little details that are supposed to stand out. Basically, I feel like I overthink my showing as being too tell-y even when it already has several layers of meaning and is already too dense for average readers.

“Show don’t tell” resources & advice...

I think people often mistake the advice of “show don’t tell” as being in the interest of making one’s writing more literary; more “high art” than candid prose typically is. The advice is intended to help one recognize when their prose is becoming dull or unengaging to the reader. Showing is supposed to promote an organically flowing reading experience, rather than turn the writing into a flowery, pretentious, and unintelligible mess. Finding a satisfying way to deliver information in the text that isn’t “I felt” or “I thought” is important. It should never dilute the information. Clarity comes first, and then one can configure the sentence to add as much richness to the reader’s ability to immerse themselves as possible.

If the desire is to show that the character is sad, writing that “she looked down at the floor and wrapped her arms around her own waist” is not going to be any less indicative of that information than “she felt sad”. That is the point of this advice. It is not a way for one to convert information into a code that the reader must analyze in order to comprehend the basic idea of what the scenes are about. This isn’t 1597, and nobody is asking anyone to be Shakespeare.

Density of a piece of writing does not give it inherent worth. Ease of comprehension doesn’t always have to be the number one priority, but it should be a considerable factor when one accounts for their audience and their subject matter. If one is writing a young adult fantasy trilogy, the density of the writing should be adherent to the demographic’s ability to comprehend certain writing styles. “Show, don’t tell” applies to all writing, but different writers interpret it differently, often based on who they’re writing for. If the concept you’re trying to convey to the reader in a subtle manner is not coming across without blurting it out in the text, perhaps the problem isn’t the way you’re describing it, but the concept is weak in its current state.

Easily misinterpreted meanings or concepts are often not the victim of descriptive style, but being underdeveloped sub textually. No important concept can be described once within a dense text and expected to translate as intended into the reader’s understanding. If it’s important enough to the bones of your story and meaning, it shouldn’t rely on the manner of description to shine through. Sometimes the density of a text is a product of too much intentional symbolism or motif. It’s okay to allow some things to be meaningful purely in interpretation. It’s okay to acknowledge that you allowed something that obviously implies meaning to be prescribed its implications by the readers.

Here are some of my other resources on the topic that you may find helpful:

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotion

Conveying Emotions

All About Colors

A Writer’s Thesaurus

Showing VS Telling in First Person POV

Using Vocabulary

Balancing Detail & Development

+ When To Use “Felt”

Showing Vs Telling

How To Better Your Vocabulary & Description

Describing emotion through action

Improving Flow In Writing

How To “Show Don’t Tell” More

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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Eden!verse Masterpost

AO3

Link to all of the Eden!verse fics

Russian translation of Eden!verse (WIP) by Sonnet23

also on Ficbook

Chinese translation of A Memory of Eden by xxxbeike

also on Lofter

Podfic of O Little Town of Bethlehem by GoLBPodfics

Summaries

Summary of A Memory of Eden

Summary of the “Bridging” Oneshots (all in the same post)

Crime & Punishment

What Glue Has Bound Together, Let No Angel Tear Asunder

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Summary of The End of Eternity

Summary of The Inheritance of Eden and In the Beginning

Handy Diagrams

The Hierarchy of Angels & Archangel and Archdemon Organization Chart

The Seven Circles of Heaven Diagram

The Gate to the Individual Heavens (from The End of Eternity)

Playlist

Eden!verse Playlist by me (covering the entire series)

Books

I turned the series into a set of printed books!

Art

From A Memory of Eden:

Crowley Being Taken to Heaven, by curiouslissa

Crowley Being Taken to Heaven, by ognivik

Aziraphale’s Fall, by portraitoftheoddity

The Clock Scene, by sous-le-saule

The Clock, by me

Aziraphale Finds Crowley’s Feather, by curiouslissa

The Burning of the Journals, by me

Aziraphale with Crowley’s Feather, by veller13

Death of Aziraphale, by cozy-aziraphale

Aziraphale’s Death, by los0sev

Aziraphale’s Death & Crowley Grieving, by Xail

Crowley’s Poor Heart Breaking, by me

Crowley Being Generally Heartbroken (some more), by me

Crowley Tearing Out His Feathers, by La-rainette-verte

Crowley Tearing Out His Feathers in the Church, by me

Just Let Me Fall, by me

The Waterfall Scene, by me

Crowley with the Scarf, by arishka-endy

The Fall of the Rebel Angels, by me

From O Little Town of Bethlehem:

Stay Close to Me, by ekalita-blr

From The Inheritance of Eden:

Heaven’s Library (Cover Art), by me

The Fab Four (Ludwig, Hamilton, Houdini, & Otho), by me

The Words to Spells, by me

The Martyrium, by me

Crowley as a Mexican Black Kingsnake, by me

Crowley in the Holdall, by me

Serpent!Crowley Saving Aziraphale at the Bookshop, by curiouslissa

Death Cometh Amongst the Lilies’ Bloom, by me

Crowley’s Gift for Aziraphale, by curiouslissa

Crowley and Aziraphale Dolls, by sonnet23

Noli Timere Messorum (Don’t Fear the Reaper): A Visual Metaphor, by me

From In the Beginning:

God Shaping Phanuel, by patolozka

The Fall, by sous-le-saule

From The Redemption of Eden:

Cover Art, by me

Bert’s Brandy, by me

The Many Fashions of Ishtyr, by me

Fics Inspired By Eden!Verse

‘Twas There That We Parted, by DoctorTrekLock

The Abduction of an Angel, by DoctorTrekLock

The Tsar’s Hat, by Sonnet23 [also available in Russian]

Art: Aziraphale in the Tsar’s Hat by slipperyyy

Art: Story Illustrations by curiouslissa

Extras

Crowley and Aziraphale’s Midfarthing Cottage

Sigil Around the Tree of Life (from The Inheritance of Eden)

Graph of the Use of the Word “Beautiful” (from The Inheritance of Eden)

Heavenly Arithmetic (from The Inheritance of Eden)

Crowley as a Christ Figure (from The Inheritance of Eden)

I visited some of the real-life locations of places mentioned in Eden!verse

210 notes View Post

aezara

1 year ago

Some Ineffable Cats ^^

ART THEFT

Someone stole my good omens art and is selling it here

Themusketee

RB I Choose You

RB I Choose You shirts, apparel, posters are available at Themusketee.

please don't buy from them they are a thief.

98 notes View Post

aezara

1 year ago

Hello, mods! I'm not looking for recommendations, just asking a question if you have the time to answer it: how do you keep track of all the fics you've read? There is a truly impressive and garguntuan amount of recs on this blog, and they are all tailored to each individual's ask. What is your process of recording and retrieving the information about each fic?---How do you know which fics to note down, and what do you note down about them? -Thank you for reading

Hi! I posted here about how i organise my extensive AO3 bookmarks to help me find and filter for fics I have already read.

Of course, not all the fics recommended on the blog are fics the mods will have personally read. When searching for fics outside of my usual reading range or things I just hadn't thought to search for the process is a bit different.

It always starts with tags. You can throw in a bunch of tags to filter on, but the more tags the fewer results. So sometimes I use only one or two tags, or swap around the tags I'm looking for. Excluding tags, too, if I'm looking for one thing and not another.

Depending on what's being requested it is often more useful to use the "search within results" function towards the bottom of the filter options. If it's something without a specific tag, or to search more broadly and not limit the search to the tags.

If the request is a very specific one or centred on a small detailed rather than a broader concept, it will often involve opening a fic and either giving it a skim read or ctrl+F to search the entire work for key words to discover if it includes the kind of scene I'm looking for.

Whether a fic is "good" or not is subjective, so I won't rule anything out if, for example, I personally don't like it. If I find an abundance of fics I will try to judge which ones fit the request more or which ones appeal to me the most--which ones I would want to read. (This is how my "to read" bookmarks are continuously growing and feels like a super perk of the job, honestly.)

And this is why it can sometimes take quite a long f*cking time to compile a list of fics for an ask. But I enjoy it, which is why I'm still doing it. I've re-watched series two about seven times now, just having it playing in the background while I'm searching for fics.

I've been so efficient recently, in fact, that the queue is looking very healthy. So we're going to up the number of posts published a day to two. There's still over 400 asks in the inbox, though, so it's still a wait of months for any asks to be published!

- Mod D

46 notes View Post

aezara

1 year ago

Absolutely delightfully batshit things that are canon from the Good Omens book but (as far as I can remember) didn’t make it into the tv series:

- Elvis never died and works as a burger-cook at Burger Lord, the fast food chain owned by Famine

- Burger Lord franchises are banned in France

- Adam has a much older sister named Sarah and I would pay so much money for a chapter from her POV

- Baby #3 from the hospital switch grows up in Tadfield too, is called 'Greasy Johnson' and his gang of kids are the Them's greatest enemies

- Adam resurrects the postman Death killed and the postman immediately goes back to work, delivering Agnes Nutter's box to Newt and Anathema. It's also strongly implied the postman, unlike the rest of the world, remembers everything

- Adam also resurrected the ten telephone salespeople Hatsur killed. They don't remember anything. It's probably for the best.

- The Them meet the Metatron and are disappointed it isn't a transformer. They make their disappointment known. Loudly.

- Warlock Dowling is good at math, likes baseball and "plastic toys that transform into other plastic toys"

321 notes View Post

aezara

4 years ago

Older drawings, Hogwart and mountains at night

Good Omens Fic Rec List 12a

Ahoy, mateys! This is the first of a two-part special edition featuring pirates. Naturally, all E-rated fics are guaranteed top Crowley/bottom Aziraphale.

1. Ten Fathoms Deep on the Road to Hell by @aziraphalelookedwretched Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21823051 Rating: G Word Count: 2,575 (one-shot) This is a simply lovely fic where Crowley comes to his angel’s rescue. Aziraphale has been assigned by Heaven to be a captain in the Royal Navy and he hates it. So, so much. The crew despises him for not being tough enough and the work is drudgery. Sighting Crowley’s pirate ship is a relief, particularly when it’s shown that they have a hostage, and Crowley’s willing to make a trade in exchange for someone valuable, someone of high rank, someone like, say, a captain. I was as relieved to see Aziraphale get off that Navy ship as he was!

2. A Man Upon the Land by lilyaceae Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18385709 Rating: T Word Count: 3,568 (one-shot) Human AU. This is a gem of a story, in which Aziraphale is a selkie searching for his missing coat, and Crowley the ship’s captain helping him in his travels. Aziraphale has hidden his true nature, but he can’t hide the growing love in his heart for the handsome captain, and Crowley harbors the same feelings for his mysterious passenger. Just as Aziraphale is in reach of his goal, pirates charge in to wreak havoc, and Crowley can’t understand why Aziraphale is so determined to risk life and limb for…whatever it is he’s looking for. This story was published before the show aired, so the physical descriptions are a little bit different from what many of us have become used to, but Aziraphale is still plump and lovely, and Crowley handsome and dashing, so it’s all good.

3. To the Victor Goes the Spoils by @quefish77 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21142742 Rating: E Word Count: 4,356 (one-shot) Aziraphale and Crowley indulge in some pirate roleplay, complete with swordfighting, and culminating with sexy times in a miracled ship captain’s private quarters. They really get into their roles here as fellow pirate captains, playing around with a story of Aziraphale’s invention. Swordplay follows, and to the victor, namely Crowley, goes the spoils. And he has some very particular favors to ask of his defeated rival. Some excellent smut ensues.

4. Cast Away (And Picked Up) by @zaxal Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29158977 Rating: E Word Count: 2,526 (one-shot) Aziraphale has been marooned on an island for over a year, but he makes the best of it, enjoying it as a much-needed holiday, when he is rescued by pirates. And who should be captain of the ship, but Crowley, much to the delight of them both. After they put on a little show for the benefit of the crew, of captive-promising-the-captain-whatever-he-wants, they retire to the cabin, and because they’ve missed each other dreadfully, Aziraphale delivers on his promise to both their satisfactions. Hot and steamy!

5. Sail Home to Me by @sad-wendigo and @unproblematicme Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699897 Rating: E Word Count: 21,284 (5/5 chapters, complete) Human AU. Aziraphale is a scholar, until his island his attacked by pirates and he’s captured. To his surprise, the captain is his long-lost sweetheart Crowley, who has become a fearsome pirate. He’s under the impression that Aziraphale left him while Aziraphale is equally convinced that it was the other way around and Crowley is the one who left. Turbulent emotions flare as the former lovers re-ignite their passion and revive old quarrels, leading Aziraphale to flee and Crowley to pursue. Stubborn feisty Aziraphale, commanding and fierce Crowley, they perfectly complement each other. Riveting and passionate, with a secret from the past revealed which changes everything.

31 notes View Post

aezara

3 years ago

Finally! My #dtiys Pride piece is done!

AHHHHH!!! I AM SO EXCITED TO BE DOING MY FIRST DTIYS

(Do This In Your Style)

I worked crazy hard on this, and I hope you like it. It is a love letter to my community. I love you all so much, you are all gorgeous flowers and you mean so much to me. I know it’s not super traditional in terms of Pride presentation, but it comes from a very earnest place. Six flags are represented by the six flower varieties - ace anemones, pan cosmos, trans astilbe, enby irises, genderqueer blue seaholly, and bisexual hydrangeas. All of these are flowers I love dearly and have growing in my gardens. I know I wasn’t able to cover all the flags - and I am sincerely sorry for that. I only had so much space in the frame and time to work on the piece. For those of you participating in the dtiys, feel absolutely free to switch out any of the the colours/flowers/etc to make the piece more you. I can’t do alllll the flags, but between us all we can!! There will be a prize (possibly prizes?). The deadline for the prize draw is July 31st 2021. I’ll draw a name (maybe names) randomly from everyone who enters by that date. Make sure to tag me so I don’t miss it! I can’t wait to see what you do 💙💚💛🧡❤️💜🖤🤍🤎

733 notes View Post

aezara

4 years ago