First, I want to say that no novel can be written showing everything. Narration (telling) and Exposition (explaining) also have their place in novel writing.  We will come to that.

EXAMPLES OF TELLING AND SHOWING:

A character's smile of pleasure.

TELLING: She was so pleased, she smiled.

SHOWING: With sparkling eyes and smiling lips, she grabbed her skirts and performed a little dance, humming under her breath.

A character's smile of scorn.

TELLING: His was a scornful smile.

SHOWING: His quick grimace of a smile, as audible as the sting of his words had been, reached his eyes in a flash of fire, revealing his contempt and scorn as readily as the stiff curving of his lips.

A character's smile of embarrassment.

TELLING: The child smiled, but he was embarrassed.

SHOWING: The child's face flushed a bright red;  he cleared his throat, bowed his head and hunched his shoulders.  He obviously wanted to be somewhere else-- anywhere else.

A character's frown of displeasure.

TELLING: He was displeased with her.

SHOWING: His eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed, and he glared at her.

A character's frown of deep thought.

TELLING: My son was sitting alone, in deep thought.

SHOWING: My son sat, his face in his hands, staring out into the darkness of the night.  He bit at his lip and sighed.  He seemed to have the world on his shoulders, and I wondered if he wrestled with his demons, as I did with mine.

Every writer should know the difference between: There, their, they're — to, too, two — it's, its — your, you're — past, passed.  Many still misuse those words. If you don't know the difference between farther and further or the difference between each other and one another, or the difference between compared to and compared with --look the words up, or catch them in a later part of this course.

We can train ourselves to use effective words that are full of vitality and have the quality of bringing our scenes to life.  Since few of us have the necessary vocabulary to make the best of our storytelling ability, all writers should have a good dictionary and a good thesaurus.

Terminology is just another name for specialized vocabulary.  When you first got your computer, you had to learn certain terms.  The same is true in writing, or any other specialized endeavor. 

Writers need to know the parts of speech and the function of each. Take this ditty to heart:

All names of persons, places and things, are NOUNS, as 'Caesar', 'Rome', and 'kings'.

PRONOUNS are used in place of nouns; 'My' thought, 'her' work, 'his' book, 'your' frowns.

When the kind you wish to state, Use an ADJECTIVE, as 'great'.

But if of manner you would tell, use ADVERBS, such as 'slowly', 'well'. To find an adverb, this test try, ask 'how', or 'when', or 'where', or 'why'.

PREPOSITIONS show relation, as 'with' respect, or 'in' our nation.

CONJUNCTIONS, as their name implies, are joining words; they are the ties that bind together day 'and' night, calm 'but' cold, dull 'or' bright.

Next we have the VERBS which tell, of action, being, and state as well. To 'work', 'succeed', 'achieve', and 'curb'— each one of these is called a VERB.

The INTERJECTIONS show surprise, as 'Oh'!  Alas!  'Ah me'!  'How wise'! Thus briefly does this jingle state, the PARTS OF SPEECH, which total eight.

Some authorities give a ninth part of speech, the article.  A and an are called 'indefinite articles.'  The words are, in reality, adjectives, and they will be so considered in these articles.

INTERESTING FACT: Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.

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