Oh Noha, I LOVE what you are bringing up here and I will continue to read your essays that include footnotes and those that don't! Also, I giggled because I had to go and look up "A.H." from the caption of your beautiful illustration (and I am sorry I didn't know yet what it meant, but I do now!). The giggle came because, right then, I was being one of those readers who goes and looks up the thing (I read your footnotes regularly, too). I'm happy to be learning new things from you, AND I feel your lament that you have to footnote your writing. That feeling you described, of being so excited about your essay idea but then trying to add layer and layer of explanation till it's not fun anymore, I get that, too. While I often feel like I'm having to give backstory to anything I write and I feel resonance with you there, I know it's not the same as what you're experiencing because I come from the Greek-Roman-European colonizer's "shared context". And I see how I have benefited from that - lyric references, the authors one builds on, the myths and religious references. This seems so eye-opening and necessary to see! So I see and acknowledge the difficulty you feel, and I appreciate that you continue to share. I'm already curious to read the essay you're working on and I hope you'll write it at least once exactly how YOU want to write it, as if we all shared your context! Because being human ISN'T the same experience for everyone, and what you can show from your world might teach me something about how to live in mine. Thank you and may your writing fill YOUR heart as much or more than anyone else's!
Anne-Marie that is the kindest note I have received in so long!!! I feel so seen. Thank you 🥰🥰
I can totally appreciate that you would also struggle with backstory, and that many people from your cultural context would as well. I know it's not an exclusively minority experience, but yes, it definitely adds so many more layers and can be exhausting. Luckily, I am relentless about sharing all the info heheheheh, and I'm so glad the footnotes are helpful for you and hopefully for some other readers. A.H. is a perfect example,, because everyone knows AD or CE, but AH is like huh? What's that...
Re the essay I was struggling with, something amazing happened: once I'd written this one expressing my frustration, it was like a block had lifted. I sat down the next two days and wrote two essays on the same topic that will be coming out the next two weeks. The first one is for all readers. The second one, which is deeply personal, will be going out to my paid audience. I would love to hear what you think of them when you do get to read them.
Oh wow that is an amazing outcome, Noha, I love that this writing released the block you were feeling for your essay!!! Writing is so powerful that way, how wonderful!! I’ll be ready to read! ❤️ And I’m so glad you feel seen, beautiful soul. I’m receiving your words here as a great gift.
Also, I want to say that - yes yes yes - while the writer’s struggle to communicate what’s in their brain, heart, soul, and body certainly isn’t unique to other-than-dominant-in-the-western-world cultures, and is a very common thread for any creative, I think it’s still very important to point out, as you have here, that your difficulty comes with an additional layer or more accurately probably many layers of identity and worthiness challenges simply because of being in a body and culture that’s judged differently from the so-called (but real and apparent) “norm” here in the colonized west. (I see even as I write this that continuing to presume and name a “norm” is part of the problem we are discussing, AND I acknowledge that white bodies and Christianity are still what get privileged in very tangible ways.) All that to preface saying, I super appreciate you appreciating my struggle, and I don’t want my having mentioned the resonance to minimize in any way the very real experience you’re sharing! I haven’t read the essay yet on decolonizing creative writing but I look forward to it and appreciate your sharing it, too. This topic feels like another hidden but now revealed way to see how my unearned advantages impact my experience in the world (h/t - which means “hat tip” or gratitude to ;) - Rashida Bonds and Simone Seol for the phrase “unearned advantages”). So appreciating the lens you bring to this being human, Noha!
And yes, A.H. does seem like a perfect example! Because this side of the world so relies on “everyone” knowing the same time marker that totally does not apply to everyone. Thank you for being relentless with a curious and grateful audience. I’m excited for your next two essays!!
Ooooh I had not seen “unearned advantages” yet but thank you for introducing me to this term. Definitely many many layers, as you described. Thank you for seeing me so clearly, and for your endless support and engagement
Now I've read the article you shared, Noha, and WOW, so much thought-provoking inquiry there. Thank you. Sooo revolutionary (I still hear teachers teaching the "show don't tell" and don't use adverbs, etc. And the quiet workshops.) Love re-integrating this element of oral storytelling, something I'm keen to delve into more myself! I feel like this will be a key article for me as I move forward with my own writing and storytelling. Grateful, again, for your share!
Noha, thank you so much for this thought-provoking and powerful reflection! I'd never stopped to consider the colonial dynamics behind creative writing and am now rushing off to Scroll to find that essay by Janice Pariat. Your writing is always a treat, and whether you're showing or telling I'm here for it!
When I was in high school my teachers who taught my English lit became my AP teacher. I remember the first day of class she told me to “forget all the rules” I ever told you. Never felt more liberated in my life. Sadly, I’m realizing now as a teacher myself I “made” students show not tell. You have me interrogating now what this really stems from. How all the rules are really baked in a language and form that was never meant to serve people with diverse experiences. Appreciate this thought.
How awesome that you had a teacher that told you to forget about that... In terms of what you told your students, I feel like it's just that deep, deep conditioning. We forget.
And as for this:
"The rules are baked in a language and form that was never meant to serve people with diverse experiences." YES!!
This struggle is one I relate to. Context setting.
One day I’d like to just write how the story wants to begin and how it wants to end… our current-day stories plentiful again as they have been for millennia - writing for oneself instead of a particular audience.
Thanks as always, Noha. Loved the visuals you chose.
Yeah I knew this would hit with some of the other Arabs, Shaista.... what you said about "one day I just want to write the story..." I wonder if you can? Just write it? And see what happens? I know that flies in the face of everything I've just described here but I think both can be true... It's such a hard balance to strike.
I’m increasingly skeptical of most rules impressed upon writers. Shun the passive voice, stick with action verbs, “If you see an adverb, kill it.” The rules do help beginners write snappier prose, but the best writers regularly break the rules, including “Show, don’t tell” (which I insisted upon in a former life as an editor). The one unbreakable rule: “Don’t bore your reader, who has lots of reasons to do something else.”
Also, I use the passive voice all the time and I'm obsessed with adverbs (probably to my detriment at times lol)... Still, the passive voice can be gorgeous. We should be allowed to use it 😅😅😅
Strunk and White started this. I’ve never encountered a more enchanting stylist than E.B. White, but maturing writers can learn more from reading his essays than from following his rules.
Yes! Charlotte's Web might be the best children's novel of all time but I cannot abide by that rule. Passive voice forever lol... I understand that it's not great for instructional writing but for creative writing, it's a go-to.
Noha, thank you so much for writing this. I love writing but stopped years ago because I thought I wasn't any good at it. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong. I think I see it now... I'm autistic, so details matter and backstory is everything. I struggle to read writers who rely too much on the "show, don't tell" rule because my brain works really differently, so I don't make the same assumptions white men of privilege would. I have a tell, don't show brain, I think. I absolutely love listening to people tell stories about their lives, especially when I can ask them lots of questions and get them to tell me all about the tiny details that made the experience important to them.
I say tell your story however you need to. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs to see that there are many ways to write.
Sarah, I'm so glad you shared this. It really helps me realize that there are so many versions of story telling, and then so many versions of the challenges around writing not from the dominant experience. Listening to people tell stories about their lives is one of the deepest joys in terms of a form of connection, and I think in cultures with strong oral histories, it's looked on with such reverence. But that oral history is not very respected in the Western cannon. We have to carry our own reverence for the things we love and value.
I hope you're ready to reconsider and come back to your own writing.
The older I get the more aware I am of how little I know, what a tiny part of collective experience I am. Your post reminds me, again, of this. And it also reminds me that reading work from authors with different experiences and contexts is like throwing open a window in a stuffy room. So please continue to write what is yours to write. What you share broadens my world, but more importantly, what you share creates a space for yourself to be. Thank you, Noha.
Yes, please keep at it. I know I'm not alone in looking forward to reading it some day.
The myth of the show-don't-tell rule is fascinating, and even as you led up to that part of this essay I was thinking that for every three writers who follow it, there is one who breaks it. And unless we are capable of reading untranslated works from different cultures, we can't appreciate the level to which a given culture's literature has been homogenized.
Long live those footnotes. May they bolster your courage to write the way you wish!
We really can't appreciate the level of homogenization. My dad used to read to us from a book in Arabic when I was a teenager, and years later I found the same book in English. I was so relieved to find it in English because the Arabic was HARD, but at the same time, it wasn't the same at all in English - nowhere near as moving or emotional. I remember CRYING at some of the stories in Arabic and I didn't have that reaction with the English, probably through no fault of the translator, but it just didn't carry the same weight. Anyway, that was a random thought about just how much wider the world of literature and thought actually is than we realize...
The footnotes are my lifeline. I'm ok with them and I think I'm ready to embrace them.
I think I like both. I read a lot of political stuff, history, science, poetry, and music. So when something light comes along, I enjoy that also. I just feel free when I read. 'Berta
I have the same problem! Always over-explaining, struggling to show rather than tell. I really enjoy these pieces and the context. It helps me understand where you’re coming from rather than assume.
This is brilliant! I have worked with the concepts of context and 'the default' as colonial, but I never thought to apply that to my writing in this way. This is eye-opening.
That was the big a-ha! moment for me too! I've worked with it in so many other things, but it never occurred to me that it was applicable to writing. It's "in the water" so you totally miss it!
This piece makes me appreciate the frustration of anyone with a culture outside the mainstream. You want to be a writer within that system, but the system allows you no presumption: it's like writing backstory in every chapter of a book. I think often of the resistance I became aware of in 2020 when black people, after the killing of George Floyd, started saying loud enough so somebody like me could hear: "it's not our job to explain." I appreciate that. The trouble is, as a privileged white woman, I'm also unaware of so much. For me to understand people as deeply as possible, I still need many things explained. I've got to seek this information out, and be happy for whatever personal insights I can get. Which is all to say: everything you do, Noha, I appreciate. I'm ready to read about these frustrations. I'm ready to read pieces with no context at all. Anything that keeps you circling the truth of your experience is interesting to me.
"The system allows you no presumption' - Yes!!! The thing is that I don't mind explaining. In fact, my natural tendency is to explain. And I understand that it can be exhausting for some and no one should feel like they have to, but there's so much under the surface that can't become part of the picture without that explanation and exploration.
Also, I think there's a huge distinction to be made between explaining and justifying. I am 1000% over justifying things. But explaining? I can explain stuff all day long to a non-hostile audience.
3. I read to learn. Learn a new concept and how I might be able to apply it to my internal beliefs/knowing.
I find it's easier to set the scene when I look at the whole picture. Can I apply the lesson: inside, outside, small scale, large scale, universal scale? If so. It is for me, truth. And so then you're just spitting the truth from your perspective and ppl who are interested will look up the words, the culture.
4. Not everyone was meant to be my audience and that's okay.
Thanks for walking me through your process. I agree with "not everyone was meant to be my audience and that's ok" - it took me a looooooooooooooong time to make my piece with that one, but it's critical.
Thank you for this. I've always regarded 'show don't tell' as a suggestion rather than a solid rule, but you've given me a solid reason to be even more sceptical about it.
Possibly the reason I have never swallowed it uncritically is that a lot of my writing, and a lot of my reading, has been genre fiction of one sort or another, especially SFF but also historical. And even in 'classics' which sit squarely in the Western tradition there are words and concepts and social nuances which aren't self-evident to modern readers. There are some words which crop up quite frequently in Jane Austen, for example, which didn't mean then what they do now—from 'nice' to 'condescending'.
And my own series is a future Earth, and with lots of familiar elements, but also significant apsects that are distinctly different. Either all this needs to be explained or I need to make sure that it unfolds clearly to the reader. And I need, as far as I can, to allow for readers from different cultural backgrounds, so thanks again for the reminder.
Right? There is so much to explain in so many cases, and yet this rule stands as universal even though it truly is not. Your response has actually reminded me of the reciprocal situation, where newcomers to a certain topic don't have that shorthand. And I love research and don't want people to be spoonfed, don't get me wrong, but often times we treat newcomers (in a societal context these are often immigrants) like they're dumb, just because they don't have the same cultural context.
Oh Noha, I LOVE what you are bringing up here and I will continue to read your essays that include footnotes and those that don't! Also, I giggled because I had to go and look up "A.H." from the caption of your beautiful illustration (and I am sorry I didn't know yet what it meant, but I do now!). The giggle came because, right then, I was being one of those readers who goes and looks up the thing (I read your footnotes regularly, too). I'm happy to be learning new things from you, AND I feel your lament that you have to footnote your writing. That feeling you described, of being so excited about your essay idea but then trying to add layer and layer of explanation till it's not fun anymore, I get that, too. While I often feel like I'm having to give backstory to anything I write and I feel resonance with you there, I know it's not the same as what you're experiencing because I come from the Greek-Roman-European colonizer's "shared context". And I see how I have benefited from that - lyric references, the authors one builds on, the myths and religious references. This seems so eye-opening and necessary to see! So I see and acknowledge the difficulty you feel, and I appreciate that you continue to share. I'm already curious to read the essay you're working on and I hope you'll write it at least once exactly how YOU want to write it, as if we all shared your context! Because being human ISN'T the same experience for everyone, and what you can show from your world might teach me something about how to live in mine. Thank you and may your writing fill YOUR heart as much or more than anyone else's!
Anne-Marie that is the kindest note I have received in so long!!! I feel so seen. Thank you 🥰🥰
I can totally appreciate that you would also struggle with backstory, and that many people from your cultural context would as well. I know it's not an exclusively minority experience, but yes, it definitely adds so many more layers and can be exhausting. Luckily, I am relentless about sharing all the info heheheheh, and I'm so glad the footnotes are helpful for you and hopefully for some other readers. A.H. is a perfect example,, because everyone knows AD or CE, but AH is like huh? What's that...
Re the essay I was struggling with, something amazing happened: once I'd written this one expressing my frustration, it was like a block had lifted. I sat down the next two days and wrote two essays on the same topic that will be coming out the next two weeks. The first one is for all readers. The second one, which is deeply personal, will be going out to my paid audience. I would love to hear what you think of them when you do get to read them.
Oh wow that is an amazing outcome, Noha, I love that this writing released the block you were feeling for your essay!!! Writing is so powerful that way, how wonderful!! I’ll be ready to read! ❤️ And I’m so glad you feel seen, beautiful soul. I’m receiving your words here as a great gift.
Also, I want to say that - yes yes yes - while the writer’s struggle to communicate what’s in their brain, heart, soul, and body certainly isn’t unique to other-than-dominant-in-the-western-world cultures, and is a very common thread for any creative, I think it’s still very important to point out, as you have here, that your difficulty comes with an additional layer or more accurately probably many layers of identity and worthiness challenges simply because of being in a body and culture that’s judged differently from the so-called (but real and apparent) “norm” here in the colonized west. (I see even as I write this that continuing to presume and name a “norm” is part of the problem we are discussing, AND I acknowledge that white bodies and Christianity are still what get privileged in very tangible ways.) All that to preface saying, I super appreciate you appreciating my struggle, and I don’t want my having mentioned the resonance to minimize in any way the very real experience you’re sharing! I haven’t read the essay yet on decolonizing creative writing but I look forward to it and appreciate your sharing it, too. This topic feels like another hidden but now revealed way to see how my unearned advantages impact my experience in the world (h/t - which means “hat tip” or gratitude to ;) - Rashida Bonds and Simone Seol for the phrase “unearned advantages”). So appreciating the lens you bring to this being human, Noha!
And yes, A.H. does seem like a perfect example! Because this side of the world so relies on “everyone” knowing the same time marker that totally does not apply to everyone. Thank you for being relentless with a curious and grateful audience. I’m excited for your next two essays!!
Ooooh I had not seen “unearned advantages” yet but thank you for introducing me to this term. Definitely many many layers, as you described. Thank you for seeing me so clearly, and for your endless support and engagement
Thank you for the opportunity to be human together, Noha. <3 <3 <3
Now I've read the article you shared, Noha, and WOW, so much thought-provoking inquiry there. Thank you. Sooo revolutionary (I still hear teachers teaching the "show don't tell" and don't use adverbs, etc. And the quiet workshops.) Love re-integrating this element of oral storytelling, something I'm keen to delve into more myself! I feel like this will be a key article for me as I move forward with my own writing and storytelling. Grateful, again, for your share!
Thank you for this, Anne-Marie. What a thoughtful response.
Noha, thank you so much for this thought-provoking and powerful reflection! I'd never stopped to consider the colonial dynamics behind creative writing and am now rushing off to Scroll to find that essay by Janice Pariat. Your writing is always a treat, and whether you're showing or telling I'm here for it!
Right?? I was gobsmacked when Waub first introduced the idea but my God it was so clearly true... I hope you enjoy the essay.
me too! off to search for Janice Pariat!
When I was in high school my teachers who taught my English lit became my AP teacher. I remember the first day of class she told me to “forget all the rules” I ever told you. Never felt more liberated in my life. Sadly, I’m realizing now as a teacher myself I “made” students show not tell. You have me interrogating now what this really stems from. How all the rules are really baked in a language and form that was never meant to serve people with diverse experiences. Appreciate this thought.
How awesome that you had a teacher that told you to forget about that... In terms of what you told your students, I feel like it's just that deep, deep conditioning. We forget.
And as for this:
"The rules are baked in a language and form that was never meant to serve people with diverse experiences." YES!!
I'd rather it's you as well.
Thanks, Michael!
This struggle is one I relate to. Context setting.
One day I’d like to just write how the story wants to begin and how it wants to end… our current-day stories plentiful again as they have been for millennia - writing for oneself instead of a particular audience.
Thanks as always, Noha. Loved the visuals you chose.
Yeah I knew this would hit with some of the other Arabs, Shaista.... what you said about "one day I just want to write the story..." I wonder if you can? Just write it? And see what happens? I know that flies in the face of everything I've just described here but I think both can be true... It's such a hard balance to strike.
I’m attempting that approach in a draft I’m working on. Just immerse the reader even if they gasp for air, trusting that they’ll find the stride!
I have to remind myself through the process to not over complicate it..
I’m increasingly skeptical of most rules impressed upon writers. Shun the passive voice, stick with action verbs, “If you see an adverb, kill it.” The rules do help beginners write snappier prose, but the best writers regularly break the rules, including “Show, don’t tell” (which I insisted upon in a former life as an editor). The one unbreakable rule: “Don’t bore your reader, who has lots of reasons to do something else.”
THAT is the one rule! Yes…
Also, I use the passive voice all the time and I'm obsessed with adverbs (probably to my detriment at times lol)... Still, the passive voice can be gorgeous. We should be allowed to use it 😅😅😅
Strunk and White started this. I’ve never encountered a more enchanting stylist than E.B. White, but maturing writers can learn more from reading his essays than from following his rules.
Yes! Charlotte's Web might be the best children's novel of all time but I cannot abide by that rule. Passive voice forever lol... I understand that it's not great for instructional writing but for creative writing, it's a go-to.
Noha, thank you so much for writing this. I love writing but stopped years ago because I thought I wasn't any good at it. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong. I think I see it now... I'm autistic, so details matter and backstory is everything. I struggle to read writers who rely too much on the "show, don't tell" rule because my brain works really differently, so I don't make the same assumptions white men of privilege would. I have a tell, don't show brain, I think. I absolutely love listening to people tell stories about their lives, especially when I can ask them lots of questions and get them to tell me all about the tiny details that made the experience important to them.
I say tell your story however you need to. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs to see that there are many ways to write.
Sarah, I'm so glad you shared this. It really helps me realize that there are so many versions of story telling, and then so many versions of the challenges around writing not from the dominant experience. Listening to people tell stories about their lives is one of the deepest joys in terms of a form of connection, and I think in cultures with strong oral histories, it's looked on with such reverence. But that oral history is not very respected in the Western cannon. We have to carry our own reverence for the things we love and value.
I hope you're ready to reconsider and come back to your own writing.
The older I get the more aware I am of how little I know, what a tiny part of collective experience I am. Your post reminds me, again, of this. And it also reminds me that reading work from authors with different experiences and contexts is like throwing open a window in a stuffy room. So please continue to write what is yours to write. What you share broadens my world, but more importantly, what you share creates a space for yourself to be. Thank you, Noha.
Like throwing open the window in a stuffy room. What a compliment!! Thank you so much, Emily!
You're welcome! It's true. Here's to opening the windows.
This was so liberating to read 💜
awwww thank you 🥰🥰
Yes, please keep at it. I know I'm not alone in looking forward to reading it some day.
The myth of the show-don't-tell rule is fascinating, and even as you led up to that part of this essay I was thinking that for every three writers who follow it, there is one who breaks it. And unless we are capable of reading untranslated works from different cultures, we can't appreciate the level to which a given culture's literature has been homogenized.
Long live those footnotes. May they bolster your courage to write the way you wish!
We really can't appreciate the level of homogenization. My dad used to read to us from a book in Arabic when I was a teenager, and years later I found the same book in English. I was so relieved to find it in English because the Arabic was HARD, but at the same time, it wasn't the same at all in English - nowhere near as moving or emotional. I remember CRYING at some of the stories in Arabic and I didn't have that reaction with the English, probably through no fault of the translator, but it just didn't carry the same weight. Anyway, that was a random thought about just how much wider the world of literature and thought actually is than we realize...
The footnotes are my lifeline. I'm ok with them and I think I'm ready to embrace them.
I think I like both. I read a lot of political stuff, history, science, poetry, and music. So when something light comes along, I enjoy that also. I just feel free when I read. 'Berta
Thanks 'Berta. It means the world to me that you like it and it speaks to you.
I have the same problem! Always over-explaining, struggling to show rather than tell. I really enjoy these pieces and the context. It helps me understand where you’re coming from rather than assume.
Thanks Ashley! It's hard, isn't it? I guess I've just realized that I don't have to feel bad about it anymore.
This is brilliant! I have worked with the concepts of context and 'the default' as colonial, but I never thought to apply that to my writing in this way. This is eye-opening.
That was the big a-ha! moment for me too! I've worked with it in so many other things, but it never occurred to me that it was applicable to writing. It's "in the water" so you totally miss it!
This piece makes me appreciate the frustration of anyone with a culture outside the mainstream. You want to be a writer within that system, but the system allows you no presumption: it's like writing backstory in every chapter of a book. I think often of the resistance I became aware of in 2020 when black people, after the killing of George Floyd, started saying loud enough so somebody like me could hear: "it's not our job to explain." I appreciate that. The trouble is, as a privileged white woman, I'm also unaware of so much. For me to understand people as deeply as possible, I still need many things explained. I've got to seek this information out, and be happy for whatever personal insights I can get. Which is all to say: everything you do, Noha, I appreciate. I'm ready to read about these frustrations. I'm ready to read pieces with no context at all. Anything that keeps you circling the truth of your experience is interesting to me.
"The system allows you no presumption' - Yes!!! The thing is that I don't mind explaining. In fact, my natural tendency is to explain. And I understand that it can be exhausting for some and no one should feel like they have to, but there's so much under the surface that can't become part of the picture without that explanation and exploration.
Also, I think there's a huge distinction to be made between explaining and justifying. I am 1000% over justifying things. But explaining? I can explain stuff all day long to a non-hostile audience.
1. It's infrequent
2. No
3. I read to learn. Learn a new concept and how I might be able to apply it to my internal beliefs/knowing.
I find it's easier to set the scene when I look at the whole picture. Can I apply the lesson: inside, outside, small scale, large scale, universal scale? If so. It is for me, truth. And so then you're just spitting the truth from your perspective and ppl who are interested will look up the words, the culture.
4. Not everyone was meant to be my audience and that's okay.
I enjoy following.
Thanks for walking me through your process. I agree with "not everyone was meant to be my audience and that's ok" - it took me a looooooooooooooong time to make my piece with that one, but it's critical.
Thank you for this. I've always regarded 'show don't tell' as a suggestion rather than a solid rule, but you've given me a solid reason to be even more sceptical about it.
Possibly the reason I have never swallowed it uncritically is that a lot of my writing, and a lot of my reading, has been genre fiction of one sort or another, especially SFF but also historical. And even in 'classics' which sit squarely in the Western tradition there are words and concepts and social nuances which aren't self-evident to modern readers. There are some words which crop up quite frequently in Jane Austen, for example, which didn't mean then what they do now—from 'nice' to 'condescending'.
And my own series is a future Earth, and with lots of familiar elements, but also significant apsects that are distinctly different. Either all this needs to be explained or I need to make sure that it unfolds clearly to the reader. And I need, as far as I can, to allow for readers from different cultural backgrounds, so thanks again for the reminder.
Right? There is so much to explain in so many cases, and yet this rule stands as universal even though it truly is not. Your response has actually reminded me of the reciprocal situation, where newcomers to a certain topic don't have that shorthand. And I love research and don't want people to be spoonfed, don't get me wrong, but often times we treat newcomers (in a societal context these are often immigrants) like they're dumb, just because they don't have the same cultural context.