1) The document provides tips for improving creative writing such as showing rather than telling, using active verbs instead of passive language, and providing hints and clues rather than explicitly stating details. 2) It emphasizes avoiding large expositions and letting characters seem real on their own rather than like puppets. 3) Examples are given of showing versus telling, with the showing example providing more subtle clues and hints rather than explicitly explaining the situation.

1. Tips to improve your creative writing

2. 
When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
~Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)

3. 
Good writing seldom involves large slabs of exposition
which tell the reader what is happening. If the author
interrupts too many times the reader may feel as though
the characters are just cardboard cut-outs, puppets whose
strings are clearly visible.

4. 
Instead, the writer should aim to make the reader feel
that the characters exist in their own way, on some
alternate plane, and that what is happening to them is
real.
Showing, not telling is crucial to turning your story
ideas into writing that comes alive.

5. Use Action Verbs

Aim to create strong, rather than washed out writing.
John Gardner in The Art of Fiction favors a more direct
presentation of events as opposed to the weak
descriptions that characterize mediocre writing.
For example, “Turning, she noticed two snakes
fighting in among the rocks,” could be changed from
passive to active easily. “She turned. In among the
rocks, two snakes whipped and lashed, striking at each
other.” (Gardner 98).

6. 
Often when we write we tell, because that is our mind
plays out the scene and that is fine for a first draft. In
the vital editing and revising stages we need to slash
and tear out all the unnecessary words, the explaining
that will only drive the reader to boredom, and make
sure we are showing the scene.

7. Don’t explain every detail. Connie Shelton in
Show, Don’t Tell, gives a very good example.

Telling: I went to the store to pick up some potato chips. My
neighbor, Elsa Brown, was pushing her cart down the aisle,
looking at the canned soups. I remembered tht Bill and I had
talked about inviting Elsa and her husband Charlie to dinner
one night this week so the men could discuss a business deal.
But Elsa’s son had said some mean things to our daughter on
the playground a few days ago, hurting her feelings. This was
going to be awkward but I knew I needed to clear the air (85).

8. Showing: Elsa Brown stood there, staring at the canned soups. I
rounded the corner and pulled up short. Awkward moment. Bill wanted
me to invite Else and Charlie to dinner—something about that big
merger. But how could I forgive…?
I must have squeezed my bag of chips. Else looked toward the cackling
sound.
“Beth, hi!”
“Elsa.” I felt the chips crush. “I, uh…”
“Look I’m glad I ran into you. I wanted to apologize for Danny’s
comments to Ashley the other day. I sent him over to apologize but I guess
you guys weren’t home.
I felt a smile at the corners of my mouth. “Hey how about you guys come
over for burgers tonight?” (99)

9. 
The second example gives far more detail, we see the
characters as real people.
Notice the use of clues for background? In the first
example we are told Bill is a business man who wants
to talk business with Charlie, in the second we are
given clues, “something about that big merger.”
It is always far more exciting when something is hinted
at rather than spelled out.

10. 
Visit my Blog to read more
http://ms-ferrari.blogspot.com/2012/08/show-dont-
tell.html

11. Works Cited

Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for
Young Writers. New York: Vintage, 1991. 98. Print.
Shelton, Connie. Show Don't Tell: Five Secrets to Solving
the #1 Problem in Fiction Writing. Connie Shelton. 85-99.
Kindle.