By A.C. Williams by @acw_author 

I love stories. Ever since I was a kid, I’d set up my armies of My Little Ponies and my brother’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and we would stage epic adventures that spanned time and space. I believe the Barbies were even involved at one point. And so were the Barnyard Commandos. (Where are my 80s kids at?)

When I decided to start writing my stories and sharing them with others, I discovered something intriguing: Speaking a story out loud is completely different than writing it down.

When we listen to someone tell a story with the spoken word, a different part of our brain engages. Hearing a story utilizes a different part of the brain than reading it does, so we understand it in a different way.

In conversation, you can say: “I was at the store the other day, and I bought a pineapple for dinner.” In conversation, that works. That’s actually our default mode for telling a story.

So why isn’t that the best mode for writing a story?

You’ve heard and read probably everything there is to hear and read about show versus tell, passive active and active voice, and vivid verbs and adjectives. But there’s a reason why writing craft books talk about all these things so much: They are the primary issues editors most often find in manuscripts.

I wish I could tell you that Show versus Tell wasn’t a big deal, that it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and that a reader can enjoy your manuscript just as effectively if you don’t address it. But that’s not true. Telling a story when you should be Showing a story makes all the difference in the world.

Telling a story is what you do in conversation. It’s what you do around the campfire at night. It’s what you do on long car rides and airplane flights. Our brains can engage with telling a story when we hear it, but when we tell a story in writing, our brains check out.

Because it’s boring.

When we are reading, we need action. We need a focal point for our minds to engage with a story. Sure, one sentence telling us about wanting to buy pineapple for dinner might start off interesting enough, but if the entire page is all telling the reader what happened rather than showing them a scenario, they’ll check out.

This is why choosing the best point of view for your story matters so much. Certain points of view lend themselves to telling rather than showing.

What is Point of View?

To start with, let’s get a little definition for the new writers. Point of View is the perspective you use to tell your story. There are three choices for Point of View:

• First Person (I)
• Second Person (You)
• Third Person (He, She)

Used in conjunction with a verb tense (Past, Present, or Future), these points of view form the overall perspective of your story format.

We are going to avoid Second Person POV like the plague. Not saying you can try to use it, but, believe me, it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. (And, no, you cannot write a Second Person Future Tense story and expect anyone to read it.)

The most widely accepted Point of View and Tense for writing a story is Third Person POV with Past Tense Verbs (e.g. “He went to the store to buy a pineapple.”). That being said, in most Young Adult Fantasy genres, First Person POV with Present Tense Verbs is most popular (e.g. “I buy a pineapple from the store for dinner.”).

However, no matter what the popularity of the other tenses and voices, nine times out of ten, a new writer will always use First Person Past Tense: “I was at the store the other day, and I bought a pineapple for dinner.”

That’s how we would speak that story out loud, so that’s how we write it naturally. But what new writers find with the First Person Past Tense POV is that they run out of ways to say things. They run out of ways to describe settings and feelings and character interactions. When you’re writing it down, it all sounds the same.

This isn’t to limit you. This isn’t to ruin your fun. I have met some authors who have successfully written an engaging novel in First Person Past Tense, so it can be done. It’s just difficult. And if this is your very first novel, make it as easy on yourself as you can.

Choose a Point of View that encourages you to SHOW the action rather than just telling us about what happened. Give your readers’ brains a vivid scenario where they can see the characters in action. Show them a story. It will make all the difference in the world.

Award-winning author A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. She’d rather be barefoot, and if she isn’t, her socks won’t match. She has authored eight novels, three novellas, three devotional books, and more flash fiction than you can shake a stick at. A senior partner at Uncommon Universes Press, she is passionate about stories and the authors who write them. Learn more about her book coaching and follow her adventures online at www.amycwilliams.com.