Art of Writing

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If we had to use dialogue for the initial
example, it might be as follows:

"You want to say something, Jeff."
"Umm, yeah, actually nothing great. I was
simply wondering..."
"What?"
"No, nothing, not sure, really. You fine?"
"Jeff, I am fine, but I wouldn't say the same
about you."
"No, no. I am fine", he laughed like static while
tuning a radio to a station across the band.

Note that in the first statement, we have not
made it a question. A question would make
the speaker (the lady Jeff is nervous to talk
to) an amiable person. By making it a
statement, it sounds more as if she is
confident and sure of things around her, and
someone who can make another person
nervous. Such little things matter too. A fair
amount of details delivered about the
speakers. The laugh, compared to the static
on a radio, adds to the nervous image of Jeff.
We haven’t stated nervousness anywhere,
directly or indirectly.
It is often mistaken that “showing” entails the
author to write more and make simple things
long winded, albeit wonderfully so. This is
usually a concern when there is a word
restriction placed on the author by some
foreign agent. However, this concern is
misplaced and quite far from the truth.
Consider the following line,

She might have been waiting for her lover.
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