3 Writing Myths Debunked

8 min read

What's discussed in this post

• Show, don't tell
• Delete your adverbs
• Don't use comma splices
• Self-edit tips

Show, don't tell

This writing rule is also framed as “show versus tell,” but both versions fall short in teaching effective storytelling because effective storytelling shows and tells.

Whether you want to show or tell in a scene depends on what you want readers to know and where you want readers to focus. It’s about balancing 

​detail in the narrative distance and directing the reader’s focus.
Since telling is often framed as bad writing, here are some criteria for using telling effectively:

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1. An effective tell uses precise diction to set the tone and pacing of the scene.
2. An effective tell has emotional depth and immediacy even though the narrative distance is more observational and objective.
3. An effective tell helps you avoid repetition.
4. An effective tell allows you to provide essential information, such as backstory or worldbuilding, succinctly.
5. An effective tell keeps your reader focused on what matters.

Delete your adverbs

No, please, don’t.

This is one of the rules used to teach writers how to write with stronger verbs, but like the “show, don’t tell” rule, the issue is that it’s not nuanced. First off, it does not specify what type of adverb—simple, flat, phrasal, or compound. Second, it doesn't

acknowledge the type of information they find so troublesome. Adverbs provide information about manner, direction, time, duration, or reason.

They are focused on simple-and-flat adverbs of manner, which are often adverbs created from an adjective and the derivational suffix -ly (e.g., softly, happily, quickly). And there is some value in wanting to reduce your use of manner adverbs. If there is a verb that conveys both the action and the manner, the adverb is redundant and should be deleted. If the adverb doesn’t add meaning or clarity to the sentence, it’s imprecise and should be deleted.

But sometimes the adverb is the best choice. What this advice forgets is that adverbs are the most versatile tool in a writer’s style kit. They’re movable, so you can use them to create different rhythms, emphases, tones, and focuses. Often, they provide essential information to the sentence, and many times, they are the reason for the 

sentence. This is especially true of sentences with intransitive verbs, which take no direct object. If you want to expand I ran, you need to add an adverb or adverbial.
So a better way to phrase this advice is: Use adverbs when they add meaning and clarity; delete imprecise and redundant adverbs.

Don't use comma splices

I discussed the effective use of the comma splice last fall, but I’ve seen pushback against the use of the commas splice come up again (probably because I’ve advocated for it as a stylistic tool). Yes, the comma splice is nonstandard and most grammar books, therefore, advise against it; but it has been used as a stylistic and rhetorical tool for hundreds of years.

Need proof? Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities opens with a paragraph of comma splices, and my 9th-grade English teacher loved that paragraph so much, she forced us all to memorize it and test us on it.

Other authors who have used the comma splice include: Agatha Christie, Stephen King, George Saunders, Suzanne Collins, Gillian Flynn, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Orson Scott Card . . . in fact, author and editor Stan Carey states in “Oh, Splices You’ll See” that he found “1–3 examples [of comma splices] maximum” in each book he read.

Finally, several reference books I own—including Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup, Rhetorical Grammar by Martha Kolln and Loretta Gray, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, The Copyeditor’s Handbook by Amy Einsohn and Marilyn Schwartz—and The Chicago Manual of Style’s “Fiction+” blog acknowledge the comma splice as an option in creative writing.

Comma splices are most effective when:

•  the independent clauses are short and have no internal commas;
  
• the independent clauses are parallel or repetitive;
  
• the independent clauses are so closely related that the alternative ways to combine them add too much emphasis or abruptness, or would break up the relationship;
  
• and the tone is informal.

Self-edit tips

For showing and telling, and adverbs:
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I recently read in Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (12th ed.) by Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup that “revision is a three-step process: analyze, assess, rewrite,” and that applies here (35). Grab a sample of your writing and a few highlighters in different colors. 

​Highlight all the adverbs and verbs in your sentence in two different colors.

Analyze: Am I using a lot of the following verbs: linking be, have, make, go, do, get, or take? What kind of adverbs am I using?

Assess: Does my verb reflect the important action in my sentence, or is there another stronger and more descriptive verb? Do my adverbs add clarity and meaning to the sentence? Do they add essential information? Or is there a more precise word to use?
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Rewrite the sentences.

For comma splices:

Many line editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders will automatically correct a comma splice even when it is a part of the author’s style, so the first thing you must do is determine how you use the comma splice, and whether or not you want it as part of your edited style.  Ask a trusted reader or your editor to mark comma splices so you can analyze, assess, and revise. 

The second thing you must do is determine whether it bothers your reader. Ask a couple more readers (ones who didn’t read for the comma splices specifically) to read a passage with the comma splice in it. Ask them to mark any sentences that jarred or distracted them. If the comma splice is effective, they probably won’t even notice it.

This all helps you learn when you want to stet for style in the future. Stet means “let it stand,” and it’s what authors (and sometimes editors) do when they reject an edit on their manuscript because they think it changes the meaning, rhythm, or tone of a sentence. Make sure you mark anything you stet for style with a comment before you give it or return it to your editor for a final pass.

What is a writing myth you've come across on social media? Comment below!

Further Study

3 ways to use comma splices effectively
The Chicago Manual of Style Fiction+ hompage
"Comma Splices and Run-on Sentences," The Chicago Manual of Style Fiction+
Using adverbs in fiction – clunk versus clarity
“Showing versus telling” in Editing Fiction at Sentence Level by Louise Harnby
Oh, the Splices You’ll See!

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