Aphelion

A long description of the setting in this one. The balance between showing and telling is always a problem when writing a story. How much? That depends on the story content, its setting and the characters that will show themselves and interact with one another. If an astronaut is lost on an isolated planet uninhabited, surely the telling will be the key tool to use. If that astronaut lands on a planet that is inhabited with intelligent being, then showing will be needed more. Too much of one can bloat the story and one of the best ways to develop a good balance between the two is reading. Sometimes what catches you might not be liked by another. I’ve read stories where narration filled the pages and I loved the story. Other stories with just as much narration didn’t hold my interest. One of the major problems of writing is grabbing the reader’s attention and holding it. Showing/ telling becomes a mixture, and the correct amount will work! However, writing can’t be broken down into some algorithm that will work entirely. Dealing with humans is trying to please and believe me, you can’t please everybody. Experiment, read, write for yourself, write to please others, write to see who likes what and why—just write and stick with it. If anybody tells you that you are not writing right, then please don’t listen to them! If they make suggestions, then hear them out.

The description in this story was very good, and the writing just a good. The author has talent, no doubt about that for the use of his words suggests good communication skills.
Keep writing, keep reading and above all else, keep an interest!

Hi Megawatts,

It's Ben here, the writer of the story. Thanks for taking the time to read and offer input on it, I really do appreciate any thoughts you might have as I seek to refine and develop my writing technique, and I'm glad you liked the description and story as well. I fully agree on your describing the challenge of balance between showing and telling, which is is something that I'm always aware of when working on stories. If you or the people reading this thread have any questions regarding the story or myself I'd be happy to answer them and will be keeping an eye on this page in the future. Yet again, thanks for the input.