3-D writing is the art of surrounding readers with your story, pulling them in and making them a part of it rather than just a reader. Dialogue, Description and Despair are three key facets: the three Ds of 3-D writing. The last key:
Despair
No, I’m not referring to what you feel as you struggle to get the dialogue and description perfect or when yet another agent rejection email appears.
I’m talking about the characters’ emotions coming off the page and surrounding the reader in 3-D. Whether it’s despair, anger, anxiety, love, fear, euphoria, or murderous rage, getting the reader to internalize the character’s emotion is critical. Great dialogue and perfect description are bland and boring without emotions. Telling the reader how the character feels doesn’t do the job.
Thousands of articles, books, and blog posts have expounded on the standard writing advice of ‘show, don’t tell.’ It’s more than good advice. It’s what makes a story come off the page. It’s also often misinterpreted and r…
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