Show don't tell...

Warning: The following blog contains some self-indulgent references to writing, but no nudity, bad language or violence. No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

I have been engrossed in;
- reading a book about writing a book,
- reading my book in the light of the book about writing a book and
- re-writing my book following the advice in the book about writing a book.

I started to analyse my first chapter yesterday morning keeping their list of 'don't do's at the front of my mind. I ran out of red ink after the first page. So I stopped doing that, and re-wrote it from scratch instead. I have made every effort to follow their guidelines. The story is essentially the same but I've convinced myself that the writing is different. And if I may say so myself, 'well better innit'. I've only written a few pages but feel very enthused about it already. I think the characters are better and the language tighter.
But the main thing that has changed, is that I've followed the book's advice to stick to the principle of 'show, don't tell'. It quickly became apparent to me that more than half of my first page was 'tell' not 'show'. I also know this to be generally true for my writing. Indeed, it was this realization that led me to stop analyzing. What more do I need to learn? The three pages I've re-written have, as far as I can see, only one sentence of 'tell' in them. I agonized over that for ages but eventually decided to keep it in as I could not manage to write it as a 'show'. I may have missed others - the next edit will need to catch them.

I like simple principles as they appeal to my simple brain. This one has stuck.