That is literally the WHOLE point of having be a rare thing that happens!
@Samuel_H_Young âShow-donât-tellâ is indeed one of the first principles of good writing! It can definitely make things more engaging. I notice you didnât give any examples of showing (as opposed to telling), so for those who arenât familiar, hereâs one Iâm making up right now:
telling: Susan was hungry.
showing: Susanâs stomach growled painfully. âIâd kill for a pastrami sandwich,â she muttered.
Obviously the second description gives the readerâs imagination more to work with. Itâs also longer, and the extra detail takes more mental processing time.
Letâs look at the part of Guenevere you picked:
Arthur orders the circle of guards to step back, and both my father and Morgana come running to my side immediately. Father is angry, and wants to know whoâs responsible so he can kill them. Morgana is concerned, and looks at my bloodstained sleeve sympathetically.
Arthur calms everyone down and announces that all is well, and the wedding will proceed. His voice is full of confidence and reassurance as he speaks to the crowd.
Hereâs how I might write that part if I was going more for show than tell (note Iâm doing this on the fly and itâs not the same quality I might be able to achieve with revision time):
Arthur straightens his back and turns to the guards. âItâs all right now,â he says. âStand down.â They move away, opening the space around us.
Red-faced and eyes bulging, my father bursts into our midst. âWhoâs responsible for this outrage?â he demands. âIâll kill them!â
âI assure you, Sir Leodegrance, weâll get to the bottom of this,â says Arthur.
Morgana hurries breathlessly to my side. âAre you all right?â she asks me, brows furrowed. Her eyes catch on my healed arm and bloodstained sleeve. âOh, your dress!â
The assembled crowd is crawling with jittery whispers. Arthur faces them and shouts, âPeople of Britain! All is well! Someone attempted to disrupt the ceremony, but they were stopped immediately by the heroism of my bravest knight, Sir Lancelot! We will carry on as scheduled, and show the world just how impossible it is to disrupt the happiness of our great nation!â
So the second example never says that Leodegrance is angry or Morgana is concerned; it shows their emotions through their demeanor and their words.
More engaging? Sure, I guess? (Probably more so in the hands of a better wordsmith.)
BUT hereâs the thing: The first excerpt was 74 words. The second is 143, twice as long. (and I wasnât deliberately trying to make it long; I was just doing my honest best to show instead of telling).
In some cases, the added length of âshowingâ is 100% worth it. Thatâs especially true in linear fiction, where the reader isnât waiting for a chance to DO anything, but is just wanting to be entertained by the text itself. But even in linear fiction, a writer has to be judicious about adding irrelevant or excessive detail. Itâs easy to get so bogged down in showing stuff that you never tell an actual story (or your reader jumps ship before you get the chance).
As for interactive fiction: your reader may be enjoying the story, but youâre trying to create the illusion that theyâre in charge. The longer you make the reader wait to do something, the less theyâll feel like they have any agency. My own biggest criticism of Guen part 1 is that itâs too railroaded â because of the nature of the story, I canât make it branch a whole lot more than it does (though I am planning to add some more branching if I can).
The wedding scene already has a LOT of pages on which the reader doesnât get to do anything. Even what they can do doesnât make much difference â sure, you can attack the assassin, but you fail; you can say a few things to a few people, but the wedding basically moves forward the same way no matter what. Most readers seem to find Guenevereâs premise and characters interesting enough that theyâre willing to put up with this lack of agency, but if I DOUBLED the word count by showing instead of telling at every opportunity? Not sure theyâd be as willing to ride the linear train.
Of course, one solution would be to add more interactivity, but that means either adding more meaningless flavor choices or adding actual plot changes, and either way it means we spend a lot more time mucking around in the wedding scene, which I honestly think is already pushing the limit in terms of length and reader patience.
If you read Guenevere carefully, youâll find plenty of places where I do âshowâ in small ways. Arthur goes up stairs two at a time. Lancelot notices Guenâs arrival at the camp council and makes sure she has something to eat. Morgana sighs a lot. Merlin has a cheese wheel in his stack of books. In those cases I as the narrator donât outright say âArthur has lots of physical energyâ or âLancelot is more attentive than Arthurâ or âMorgana is frustratedâ or âMerlin is weirdâ â the details show it (at least, I hope they do).
Iâm not saying I couldnât do a better job of this, but I tend to prioritize economy of description. So when I do manage show instead of telling, Iâm trying very hard to do it in the most efficient way I can, so that the story is â as much as I can manage â about the readerâs agency rather than mine.
tl;dr: Show-donât-tell is good advice and well worth thinking about, but sometimes you just need to get to the next thing.
Okay, fair enough! I wasnât insinuating that I didnât think you were doing enough, and I was sure that you had already thought about all that, but I just wanted to pop in and give my thoughts.
This brings up an interesting question. What sort of powers would you introduce into your new bloodline if you could?
ponders I know, I probably watched Lady Hawke to much, but changing into an eagleâŚor at least talking to one would be nice. Then again, I can picture my Guen being into falconry.
Confirmed! You can kill off everyone.
Back to being serious, I believe that the FAQ you have written out has doubled, perhaps even tripled my excitement. So many Guen possibilities. This game is going to be played and replayed for a very very long time (not that it already hasnât been, trust me).
Something simple, fairly useless, and easily testable. Like the ability to melt/boil water or rust iron with pure will.
What about the power to grow your nails longer and scatch people?
My Guen. Because Emma Watson seems like a logical choice for a Arthurian queen.
My Morgana. A mid 30âs Sandra Bullock. Suppose this is really just a personal preference but sheâs got the look down in this picture imo.
Suppose Chris Pine would be my Lance. Seemed appropriate.
Arthur. Honestly, dunno who Chris Colfer is. I just did a few searches and chose on how my mental image fit the picture.
Also sorry if Iâm late to the party on this.
Mind control/Reading minds and illusions. Keeps the citizens tame and helps you avoid dumb discussions.
âŚwhat does that mean âthat powers are morally questionableâ? Ruling people based on magical bloodlines alone is morally questionable, who cares about the powers themselves?
I donât know if you can answer this @jeantown, but what are the bloodline specific powers of their different from normal magic ability? Is it a set of powers for each bloodline?
@darkwolf76 Iâm going to save the specifics for part 3/4, since thereâs a long story involved and the powers have dwindled and shifted over the years due to Backstory Reasons. But originally, the Lothians had powers involving cultivation and fertility of the land, the Arimitheans had powers involving bodily and spiritual health, and the Pendragons had martial powers for defense and peacekeeping.
Maybe you can include it as something Guen does between books? And it will give a boost to whatever personality stat is associated with that cause.
Though I wouldnât mind a scene or two where Guen personally serves meals at a soup kitchen or gives a commencement speech for a university graduating class.
Also, is fashionability a stat that is tracked?
Iâd suck at that stat
Me too. I vote we get the option to run around naked - more healthy that way.
Can we at least have shoes? I love shoes
Though I hear heels are tortureâŚso maybe something more functional?
You donât want to feel mud between your toes as you strike your claim as the rightful queen of Camelot? I believe I also read somewhere that going barefoot in the dirt relives some depression.
begins running around in the dirt
Also no, probably not I canât imagine riding barefoot
Live like a native. Shoes are overrated anyway. Honestly, if I didnât currently live in the city Iâd be barefoot 100% of the time.