Show Don't Tell

I've been reading as a writer, and so when a book isn't good, I ask myself, "Why not?"

The Way Men Act by Elinor Lipman sounds like it should be good, at least entertaining. It is a variation on Bridget Jones Diary.

But it is flat. It took me a while to figure it out, but all of her scenes become excuses for flashbacks. All the action in the book has already happened. IThere is a series of men that she has slept with and she tells us about them in scenes with an almost friend, Libby, who owns the dress shop next to the florist where she works.

The flashbacks reduce each of the action scenes to a reminiscence. And the reminiscence is always tinged by the narrator's current cynicism and worldly wisdom. The point is that there is no plot tension generated by each of these situations, because they don't get told until they have already been resolved. And, we never get to see her flounder in expectations that get disappointed, actions that get regretted, or hopes that she's too chicken to act on.

It feels like a long conversation, not like a book. Some people might like it, but it isn't what I go to the library for.

I want to be carried away into situations where i live through them and experience the uncertainties along with the character.

It was a good book for learning how not to write.