Saturday, April 28, 2012

“Telling Details”…A ‘Big Book’ in Just a Few Pages!


Telling Details, 2nd Edition
[Kindle Edition]
27 Pages

Some writing books have a few good ideas and lots of padding while others offer many good ideas, no padding and just a few pages.

“Telling Details” is of the many good idea variety.

What I found the most impressive in "Telling Details" is that the author is a teacher with much experience. Her ideas have been tested. She does not say something as cliché as “Show, don’t tell”. Rather, Kat Duncan gives the strengths and weaknesses of both telling and showing. She then gives several examples of melding both telling and showing tohether in order to  get the maximum benefits of both approaches in the fewest words.

"Telling Details" also covers the importance of 5-sensing the writing to make it real for the reader. In addition to the five major senses, the author goes into over a dozen examples of the minor senses. Like balance, temperature, muscle memory, and many more.

This book could only have been written by someone who is doing it and who puts herself out in front of other writers who can challenge her views. This is clearly tested material.

The 'telling details' the book is named for are also very important. Two details can often pinpoint the reality of a location or situation; however, they have to be the right details. When visiting Venice, for example, I’d only need to see a part of a building and smell the canal water to know I where I was. Notice that these are not the cliche canals and bridges.

More than a dozen examples are given in the material of the many different types of details a writer may use. There were many more types than I would ever have thought of on my own. "Telling Details" covers much more useful information than the title would seem to indicate. "Telling Details" is a very good 'book' to read and read as soon as possible.

More Useful Information Than I Ever Expected! Exceptional Value -- 5 Stars!

Other Helpful Writing Books Reviewed Here



No comments:

Post a Comment