So, here we go again. I guess I just never say it enough. It's so easy to tell when you write, and so bloody hard to show. As a reminder, here is a wonderful write-up by Chuck Palahniuk about it, namely, about how to unpack your sneaky lazy telling into bold crisp showing, and it's hard work and you won't like me one bit for what you're about to read (and Chuck says the same thing at the very top of his lovely write-up, so it's okay, you can hate me too if you want).

Since reading theory is boring, let me slap you in the face with some examples so you can see what I'm talking about and start looking for these bastards in your own writing and kill the fuck out of them (this whole post, by the way, is as much for me as it is for you, because it's really me shouting at myself to be a better writer, and I figure you can benefit from my shouting too).

DON'T FUCKING NEVER FORGET TO TELL US WHERE YOUR SHIT IS HAPPENING.

This rant is brought to you by my doing more editing and also reading more writing submissions on @ellowrites and lately setting some books aside because, well, they totally failed to give me the feeling that the story is real. I mean, I know it's a lie but I want to be fooled into thinking that it's real, and if I don't get the feeling about where the story is happening, like in an actual real place, geographically real or imagined on some planet but that still feels real enough, I don't believe a word the writer is saying and toss the book out the window.

I'm guilty of this too, don't think you're alone. Here are some tricks I use. See if you can steal some for yourself and maybe share some of yours in the comments for all of us to steal too.

1. Imagine you're describing a movie.

SHOW! DON'T TELL! Or I will kill you.

Why setting is important