The Art of Storytelling 102: Showing vs. Telling

TERRI VALENTINE

The Art of Storytelling 102: Showing vs. Telling

TERRI VALENTINE

$299.99


03/27/2025 - 05/08/2025

Enroll Now

Session One: Creating a Dynamic Concept

  • The differences between showing and telling. Developing compelling characters: major, minor, and mini. Avoiding “information dumps" when presenting character backgrounds. Introducing a character before he or she appears.

Session Two: Compelling Characters

  • Selecting point of view (POV). Showing and telling within each POV: first, third (omniscient), third (limited omniscient). The uses and abuses of interior monologue.

Session Three: The Right Voice for the Right Story

  • Using dialogue to convey character, information, and background. Narrative tags versus dialogue tags: when to imply rather than tell. Best placement of tag lines.

Session Four: The Three-Act Plot Structure

  • How much setting description is necessary. The techniques of implying, describing, and experiencing setting. Selecting settings as misdirections to make scenes more interesting. Best placement of setting information in a scene.

Session Five: Showing Your Style

  • How to use showing and telling to create various forms of conflict, including internal, external, plot, and character.

Session Six: How Theme Drives Plot

  • Learning to put the right description in the right place, rather than flooding each page with elaborate descriptions or metaphors.

$299.99


03/27/2025 - 05/08/2025

Enroll Now

Session One: Creating a Dynamic Concept

  • The differences between showing and telling. Developing compelling characters: major, minor, and mini. Avoiding “information dumps" when presenting character backgrounds. Introducing a character before he or she appears.

Session Two: Compelling Characters

  • Selecting point of view (POV). Showing and telling within each POV: first, third (omniscient), third (limited omniscient). The uses and abuses of interior monologue..

Session Three: The Right Voice for the Right Story

  • Using dialogue to convey character, information, and background. Narrative tags versus dialogue tags: when to imply rather than tell. Best placement of tag lines.

Session Four: The Three-Act Plot Structure

  • How much setting description is necessary. The techniques of implying, describing, and experiencing setting. Selecting settings as misdirections to make scenes more interesting. Best placement of setting information in a scene.

Session Five: Showing Your Style

  • How to use showing and telling to create various forms of conflict, including internal, external, plot, and character.

Session Six: How Theme Drives Plot

  • Learning to put the right description in the right place, rather than flooding each page with elaborate descriptions or metaphors.

Course outline

Course outline

Each session includes a reading assignment, a written lecture, creative exercises to further your learning, and a writing assignment to turn in for personalized feedback from your instructor.


Meet the instructor

Terri Valentine

The writing career of romance novelist Terri Valentine is truly a Cinderella story. An avid reader all of her life, she began writing her first historical romance in the summer of 1985 on an old Smith-Corona manual typewriter. Of course it had several keys that stuck, and invariably every time she made even minor changes the entire manuscript had to be completely retyped. In spite of such adversities, she believed in herself and finished that first valiant effort, and then went on to revise her manuscript several times before satisfied.

One year later, Terri submitted Sea Dream to publishers. After several rejections, good ones she was later to learn by the standards of the industry, she went on to sell her book. Since then, she has been under steady contract. To date, she has ten romance novels and a Christmas short story in publication. Sweet Paradise was nominated for Best Romance Adventure by Romantic Times in 1992. Louisiana Caress received a coveted K.I.S.S (Knight in Shining Silver) Award from Romantic Times in 1993. Sands of Time (1993), her first time travel romance, is set in the Middle East. In 1995, Storm Dancer was a single release title from Zebra, followed in 1997 by the release of Paradise Promised. At present she is under contract for two more historicals, and she is currently working on a high-concept romantic novel that her agent anxiously awaits. She has also written a screenplay that is in production rewrites.

Terri Valentine is WDU’s critique editor for children’s picture books. Customers have been extremely pleased with the feedback provided by Terri. Terri said, “Good fiction writing is good fiction writing. Through my experience, I’m able to ‘see’ what works in a novel as well as a picture book.”

“Most valuable to me is the unstinted assistance and shared knowledge given to me by other writers throughout my career. I would never published if it had not been for the help of one such writer who offered support and encouragement from start to finish of that first manuscript.” Following in her mentor footsteps, she has eagerly critiqued manuscripts and helped other beginning novelists learn the taxing craft of writing, many of whom have gone on to publish.