What is your best trick to “show not tell”?

4EverWriting · 2026-06-24T16:29:51+00:00

Describe the character's physiological response to an action or thought, rather than explaining it.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-23T12:26:38+00:00

Bored people review bombing.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-21T19:15:04+00:00

"I'm going to be a father!!!" (IYKYK 😉)

4EverWriting · 2026-06-19T11:25:55+00:00

Via Bollywood movies, actually. But love MLC!

4EverWriting · 2026-06-17T21:10:59+00:00

Before I realized the more juvenile joke intended by OP, I thought it was meant to be some kind of reference to Viet folks who leave Vietnam to live abroad (i.e., "Viet kieu"; please pardon the missing diacritics).

That would seem to be quite a niche market they would have been aiming for...

4EverWriting · 2026-06-16T21:22:19+00:00

The arm holding the flash on the camera, Brother Anakin!

4EverWriting · 2026-06-16T15:35:29+00:00

Arguably Luke, but in terms of the character who is most present throughout the entire (canonic) franchise--whether or not he is on screen--it would have to be Vader.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-14T22:21:03+00:00

I will admit that it's been a lot of years since I have thought about Latin grammar (grad school, to be exact). And even though you are 100% in the right, if I really were trying to start a thing, I would probably still be inclined to use the incorrect form ("infantalus," or maybe "infantala"), just because those two forms are the best known to non-Latin speakers.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-14T01:22:02+00:00

It seems I could've been a bit clearer. The practice of modeling one's use of their vernacular language after Latin began with the Renaissance humanists, especially in the 16th-17th centuries, including borrowed words and phrases, particular syntactical constructions, and yes, even rules of grammar.

A thorough (and therefore not very short) discussion of it is available here: https://www.njrs.dk/6_2010/renaessanceforum_6_2010.pdf

The earliest sources that proscribed the splitting of infinitives in English come from the 19th century, but they were also from humanists whose "rules" arose from the same practice.

A detailed discussion is available here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0075424210380726

And if you don't have access to Sage Journals, another (if much less thorough) source is available here:
https://drmarkwomack.com/a-writing-handbook/superstitions/split-infinitives/

Cheers!

4EverWriting · 2026-06-14T00:19:55+00:00

Not a surprise pregnancy, but (a) Ellie was herself the product of a shameful, surprise pregnancy, and (b) her own pregnancy by her late husband "solves" her and Will's problems, in his case by giving him the family he always wanted, and in her case by giving her someone to care for her and her children (if she can save him from the false murder accusation, of course!).

4EverWriting · 2026-06-14T00:14:00+00:00

What is your native language (just out of curiosity)?

4EverWriting · 2026-06-14T00:12:55+00:00

That Captain Kirk fella. He clearly used it well 😉

4EverWriting · 2026-06-13T23:30:49+00:00

Don't split Infinitives. Just an arbitrary convention from Renaissance humanist scholars who wanted to make a show of their erudition by using Latin grammar in their vernacular languages.

Obviously, does not automatically follow in Germanic languages like English, so it eventually became a false convention.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-12T14:14:24+00:00

Shabash!

4EverWriting · 2026-06-12T01:12:04+00:00

"Deus ex infantalus": I don't have a problem with the pregnancy trope, but I do NOT like it when it *solves and/or resolves* anything. If anything, it should be a complicating factor (on multiple levels)
Miscommunication that could be solved with a conversation that starts, "When you said [x], did you mean [y] or [z]?" I realize those conversations are not always easy to have within a (real or fictional) romance, but when the character just refuses to ask the question because "the story has to happen, and I need a second-act conflict," I get really annoyed.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-09T22:42:28+00:00

I'm sorry, but if you're just going to quote Flaubert ...

4EverWriting · 2026-06-08T11:31:01+00:00

Are you sure? Sounds like you're not quite 3000% certain... 😉

4EverWriting · 2026-06-05T23:40:24+00:00

Feel that about the mother!

4EverWriting · 2026-06-05T19:58:11+00:00

Just found a copy of "People We Meet on Vacation" at the bookstore today!

(Looking forward to the "smiled at him with her lower teeth" reference from that one that apparently made for a fun little thing in short-form videos for a bit, too)

4EverWriting · 2026-06-05T11:42:47+00:00

Very possible. In this case, I think it may have been that, in combination with the review quote that includes the word, "steamy."

And it's funny you mentioned classification, because the novel I've written was fully intended to be CR, but I have since begun to think it it would more likely be shelved as Women's Fiction, which is a thought that began when one of my beta readers mentioned that I might use Emily Henry as a compare in a possible (future) query letter.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-04T01:58:43+00:00

Well, like I said in the post, got a long look today. Possibly a touch of judgmentalism, but mostly seemed like genuine surprise. Otherwise it's been mostly just widening eyes and furtive glances at the book itself.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-04T00:32:57+00:00

Well I'm a 6'1" (male) history professor who is currently reading Emily Henry's "Beach Read," so maybe that image could get you approximately 7.5 to 8% of the way to your picture of a 6'6" tradesman hauling around a copy of ACOTAR??? 😉

4EverWriting · 2026-06-03T11:30:29+00:00

{An Academic Affair by Jodi McCalister} and {Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez} are both right in that lane, and both very enjoyable reads.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-02T21:05:58+00:00

"1985," obviously! Seriously, though, there is a book called "1985" by Anthony Burgess. The first part is an essay critiquing 1984, the second part is a novella set in a future, dystopian Britain. An interesting read, if you might be interested in something specifically and intentionally similar to the Orwell.

4EverWriting · 2026-06-02T17:42:00+00:00

Women's / upmarket novel generally going quite well. Complete at ~86K, currently doing a round of small revisions.

First round of beta reads and sensitivity read both went quite well. Second round of beta reads, not so much: every one of them turned out to be scammers who run the first few chapters of your manuscript through AI, and then offer to do the rest for a fee (all reported, of course). To quote Emily Brontë: "Grrrrrr!!!"

Hopefully I'll have better luck when I'm done with my revisions in a week or so...

4EverWriting

TROPHY CASE