Barbara V Evers

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Does show vs tell apply to all writing? I'm part of a team project assigned to develop an online training video. The project's writers include a broad mix of backgrounds including writers, trainers, actors, instructional designers, and scriptwriters. My forte in this arena is the instructional design and training aspects. Although I teach in an e-digital format for this same company, what I do isn't a story video, it's pure teaching. That said, I've noticed as we've moved from brainstorming ideas to objectives to key points to actual scripts that show vs tell still remains important. What is tell? The first script had a scene where our characters discuss something that happened at work. One character has the knowledge. The other two don't. So, he's telling them about it. They don't experience it as it happens, which means the audience doesn't experience it as it happens either. It's a bit on the dry s

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Do you have a story to tell? Most people do. Don't you tell stories when you get together with friends? You might not think you're telling a story, but when you relate the details of your day or an event, you've told a story. The real question is how should you tell your story? Some of us tell stories about our lives in small gatherings. Some people share their dreams with others—stories of a personal vision. Others make up people and events and share them, either as a liar presenting false truth or as a children's story. For some reason, pure storytelling, ie face-to-face, if it's fiction, tends to focus on an audience of children. A long time ago, people gathered around a fire in the evening and told stories and legends. Today, if the story's audience is adult, we tend to use television or movies instead. Even Facebook has transformed into a storytelling medium. Thank goodness for writers! A writer takes these ideas

Search for writing topics online, and you'll discover a plethora of resources to guide and help you in your writing pursuits. Although, I don't recommend every resource you find, I do subscribe to a few. Today, I thought I'd share two YouTube channels that I've found informative, both of them focused on the topic of editing. After viewing these, if you decide you want to talk to a freelance editor, feel free to contact me with questions. I've edited several novel-length manuscripts over the years and am available to help you. Before you do that, First, decide if you need an editor: iWriterly:  When to Work With a Freelance Editor Second, decide what kind of editor you need: Mollie Reads:  My Editing Process + Rates AND If you haven't found a group of writers to guide you as you write your first, second, and third drafts, here's a list of writing associations .  The list doesn't include state organizations, and even though it says th

Last week I talked about writers and their social media needs . To market yourself, you need that presence, a platform to help potential readers find you. Writing may be a creative art, but it’s also a business. Besides marketing ourselves, we need to get BIC (butt in chair). Many authors gauge their success by their daily word count. In November, writers all over the world try to reach a very high word count in that month. To satisfy this NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) goal, they must write 50,000 words. That's not easy to do. So, when I ran across this Fantasy Authors Handbook post yesterday, I knew I needed to share it here. To me, this sounds like the "fish that got away" story. The story is so wild, so unbelievable, I must question it. So pop on over to the Fantasy Authors Handbook blog  and read about Lester Dent, the most prolific writer ever. After you read it, let me know whether you believe it's accurate or just a big fish story.