More Show Than Tell.

I am always amazed when a particular work is able to bring life to a character in a single paragraph, and sometimes even less. Allen’s Bringing Subjects to Life makes clear the importance of showing us a character, rather than telling us about the character. Though I’m convinced by her clear examples and provided rewrites that this process is essential for developing interesting writing, I find it particularly challenging. In attempting 10-minute character sketches I was sometimes unsure whether I was showing or telling. However, after stepping away from this mini project and returning without the pressure of a 10 minute time limit, I found that some of her examples had begun to sink in on a subconscious level. Other examples of characterization began to flower.

I love garden metaphors.  They are generous and expansive in interpretation and universal in application. In The Profit, Khalil Gibran speaks of friendship. “He is your field which you sow with love and reap with Thanksgiving.”  Paul Fleishman’s, Seedfolks uses the transformation of a vacant lot to a community garden as a metaphor for healing and regeneration. This beautiful little book is small in only the most literal sense. It is ideal for teaching multiculturalism. The author shows us the fallacy behind simplistic generalizations. One by one we meet his characters. They come alive as they are freed from societal stereotypes. We know their pain and with them we are healed. I am taken by the clarity, simplicity and compactness of his characterizations. This is a book I definitely plan on sharing with my students.