Show and tell revisited

 This week I'm getting towards the end of my novel re-write.  I've got my two main characters in different places, teaming up with different sets of people.  And that's given me a problem.

At various points in the story I have them calling each other to report on what they're doing.  So what' s the problem with that? you might ask.  Well, the problem is show and tell.

I have two  viewpoint characters, and I switch between them to show the key action for both of their storylines when I'm in their heads.  Which means that I'm showing those scenes to the reader in all their detail.  So, when I come to the other character being updated about what action, I can't show the scene again.  What I need to do is have the character be told about that action by the other one.

There are things I can do to liven up the telling.  When one character has been attacked, I can show the other character's reaction to that news.  In that case I simply wrote 'Travis told her about the attack at the Institute'.  But the thing that makes that scene different is Banan's reaction to the news.  That's where the new information comes in.

That's one way to add something to a scene which the reader already knows about.  By focusing on the characters' reactions to the events I am adding a new layer to the narration. 

The other way to add something new is to focus attention on the discussions the characters have after the information has been been imparted.  In the scene where Banan learns about Travis being attacked, the focus is on what needs doing in future to prevent a repeat of that attack at an upcoming important meeting.  This has worked well in most places,

 Another trick I've used is to add the character's internal dialogue to the news they've  just been given.  That allows Travis to relive bad memories about his brother, which explain why he doesn't want to do something now.  And in some cases I'vd had a character recalling a line of dialogue of an earlier discussion with some important information.

I've had a continuity problem with this.  On a couple of occasions when I've checked back to the earlier chapter I've realised the other character didn't say that at all.  The viewpoint character did.  So then it becomes a rewrite, getting that character to remember their own words.

Apart from a few hiccoughs like that, I think I've sorted out the show and tell problem in the novel.  I haven't come across it in any of my other novels in quite the same way.  Maybe because there the characters are more often working together, so the change of viewpoint is just a baton-change while the same action continues,

In this novel the two characters have had different storylines, which they need to tell the other about.  It's been an interesting challenge working out how to solve that problem without boring the reader with stuff they already know.