Third Campaigner Challenge - Show Not Tell

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Well, October is flying away, and the time has come for my Third Campaigner Challenge. It will be a bit different from the Second Challenge, as the lovely J. has volunteered to administer the judging (assuming we can get enough judges from the people who volunteered at the start of the Campaign--if not, we'll have to revert back to "like" judging). My thanks in advance to the judges for their help. Make sure you pop over to Concrete Pieces of Soul and thank J. for her efforts by following along.

Now for the Challenge (and please note the word count change!):

Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show:

• that it’s morning, 

• that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach

• that the MC (main character) is bored

• that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting

• that something surprising happens.

Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: "synbatec," "wastopaneer," and "tacise."   (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them).

Here are some tips on "Show Not Tell" to help you out:

• stay in the moment (describe what is happening to your character as it is happening to avoid telling)
• avoid summarizing as much as possible (eg, "He stabbed her with a knife"). It can work well as a means of "skating over" unimportant details, or moving from one scene to another, but summarizing in the middle of a scene usually reads as "telling"
• keep an eye out for words that (often) indicate the presence of "telling". Examples include "was" (or other forms of "to be") and "felt" (eg, "He felt scared" or "He was scared"). Though note that not every use of "was" is telling
• try to avoid labelling feelings. Rather than saying, "I felt angry," describe what those emotions are doing to the characters, mentally and physically
• but don't just describe the physical effects of an emotion (eg "I clenched my fists"). Dig deeper. Utilize the five senses, things the character notices or doesn't notice, and memories of past events, as well as physical reactions, to show how the character is feeling.

Once you’ve posted your Challenge post on your blog, pop back here and link directly to it in the Linky List below (please make sure you include the direct link to your post, not just the link to your blog!).

Entries in the Third Campaigner Challenge will close on Monday, October 24th (at 11.59pm EDT) (one weeks' time exactly). So make sure you get your post in the Linky List before then if you want to be eligible for a prize! As usual, while everyone is very welcome to take part in this Challenge, only Campaigners will be eligible for prizes.

There will be heaps of awesome prizes awarded this Challenge, for the entries that are judged the best, for Peoples' Choice Awards, and through Random.org. We're talking ARCs, books, critiques, and other items galore! My thanks go to everyone who has volunteered to donate prizes. You're all awesome!!!

I've again set up the Linky List to let you "Like" entries, so make sure you come back here and vote for your faves. This is an honor system, so please don't take advantage of this process either on your own or another's behalf. "Like" voting will close on Friday, October 28th.

I'll (hopefully) be announcing the winners before the end of October.

So, all that remains is to enjoy. Leave a comment to let me know you're doing the Challenge. Have fun writing your post, then pop round to the other entrants, check out their posts, follow and comment, and decide which entry or entries YOU like the best!

And don't forget to add your name and post link to the Linky Link below before 11.59 pm on Monday, October 24th!

IMPORTANT: DON'T PUT YOUR NAME IN THE LINKY LIST UNTIL YOU'VE WRITTEN YOUR POST - THEN LINK DIRECT TO THAT POST PLEASE (ie, insert the complete URL to your Challenge post, not your blog address/URL)

Don't forget to come back here and vote for your favorite entry/entries before Friday, October 28th!!!

Hope you enjoy the Challenge. How about you: any other "Show Not Tell" tips to add to the above list?