Signs of Just Telling

A quick way to make a novel boring is by just telling the reader what happened. You need to pull them in and make them a part of the story, not leave them off to the side as a bystander or spectator. Even descriptions should be worked into the story as a character encounters them, and not presented as a long narrative.

Keywords can be red flags to just telling. Here are just a few common ones to look for:

• realized 
• seemed
• felt
• heard
• angry/anger/ angrily
• started to/begin to
• was/were/is/are/be/been
• adverbs ending in ly

You don't want to overuse any of these words. Are there better ways of saying the same things? Instead of just telling, give it some action.

Mary was sad to see Greg's train pull out of the station. 

Mary wiped the tears from her eyes to see Greg's face one last time before the train rolled from the station, taking him away. 

Do a search on a section of your writing, and rewrite some of these red flags you find. Learn to make the story come alive for readers. Draw them in and allow them to live your story with the characters.

______________________________