Showing Your Story or Boring Your Readers

Happy Tuesday! The other day, I have to tell you that I was really excited to find a better grasp of "show don't tell" than I have had.
 Not sure if it is just me, but while I get the gist of what that means, it is not always a simple task to apply this to one's own writing.  I can easily read someone else's work and tell them how it can be made better.  This, however, is completely unhelpful to my own writing endeavors. It is quite perplexing to me.

I honestly don't mind old cliche's or narrative (in this case I'm referring to "telling"). I'll clarify that by saying that I don't want an entire book full of tired cliche's but I have to admit that at times it seems appropriate both to the character and the situation to use an old cliche.  In addition there are times when you could get away with using a lot of narrative, such as if you were writing as though you were telling the story.  This is particularly useful if you write as in inanimate object, but it would still be peppered with plenty amounts of "showing".

As I alluded to earlier, I find it somewhat difficult at times to apply "show don't tell" in my own writing.  My brain must have been working overtime to process something which may help.  I was in the middle of writing a story, the premise was okay (meant to be a "fluff " story), but it was boring me.  If it was boring me, I knew that someone else would pitch it across the room and scream in agitation at it. Thank goodness for doorways (doorways make you forget, or change your mode of thinking).  I walked through my kitchen doorway after putting my writing down, thinking about how boring it was when suddenly I was hit with a surprise.  A complete shift in what I had wanted to be the main character and which has ended up with about three main characters (also something unforeseen).  In addition to that, the change or shift allowed me to experience my own story in a different way and thereby "show" instead of "tell".  I don't think this would have worked if I hadn't at first struggled to put my existing thoughts for the story on paper.  It was extra work, but with the resulting changes, I was able to write about 20,000 words (not necessarily good ones, keep in mind) in about 3-4 days. I was ecstatic and the story no longer bores me. This experience is going to help me generate a list of ways that I can hopefully make my writing more "alive".  I'm going to try and compile a list for anyone else who also may struggle with this, and post it ...mmm... later this week (I think I want to challenge myself a bit). Fair warning: I have some final papers coming up in my classes, so I may be biting off more than I can chew (see?  appropriate tired cliche).

Anyhow have a great day!