Showing - Words Matter
What separates good writers from great writers? A great writer crafts new yet fully believable worlds out of ordinary words. If we can teach our youngest writers this essential skill when they first learn to create sentences, imagine the calibre of stories they’ll produce long before their mid-thirties and throughout their lifetimes.
Show, Don’t Tell
Everyone craves good stories. We want to listen to good stories. We want to be captivated as the story unfolds. We also want to tell our stories in a way that intrigues, compels, and conveys thoughts and ideas clearly and powerfully. Writing a good story is much more than just recording our thoughts. A good story, one worth telling and listening to, must be crafted in such a way as to create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. We call this “showing”.
The Power of Mentor Texts: Thinking Like an Author
“Read like an author” is advice often given to adults who aspire to write. They are encouraged to read often and widely and, as they do, to think about what aspects of the writing craft the author used to create a book worth reading. To put it another way, aspiring authors are encouraged to use their reading as research and to apply what they learn to improve their writing craft.