What You Need to Know About Show Don’t Tell

show don't tell

I did not attend my first writer’s conference until I was well into my 30s (that’s its own story), and I am ashamed to say that was the first time I ever heard about “show don’t tell”. Outside of avoiding spelling errors and avoiding prologues (???), this is apparently one of the golden rules of writing.

Learning About Show Don’t Tell

Michael Palmer and Tess Gerritsen sat me down (well, I sat in the audience while they stood at a podium) to tell me all about it. Of course, when you write, you are “telling” a story. Show don’t tell is something more than that. It encourages you to be more descriptive in your writing. Instead of spelling everything out for the reader (i.e., telling them exactly what is happening and how your characters feel), you let the reader extrapolate that information for themselves based on what you show them.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Anton Chekhov

It’s all about getting your reader involved in the story and pulling them into a scene. When they are emotionally invested, your story will have more impact. That’s how you get someone to keep reading and turn the page.

How to Use Show Don’t Tell

There are different ways to use show don’t tell. For one, you can draw on the five senses. You can steer away from passive verbs in favor of stronger action verbs. Incorporating more dialogue can color a scene too. Better yet, cut back on adverbs and lazy adjectives.

Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please, will you do my job for me?”

C.S. Lewis

Show don’t tell is harder than it sounds. Writing is a hell of a lot easier when you make things matter of fact. The artistry is in the showing. That takes finesse and imagination. The good news is there is no one way to do it. In time, you will find a style that works for you.

When I looked back at my own writing, I found I showed plenty but like most things in life, there was definitely room for improvement. Since I started paying closer attention, my fiction writing has taken on a life of its own.

When Show Don’t Tell Doesn’t Work

The technique often means more exposition. After all, it usually (not always) takes more words to describe a scene than to call it out. Before you know it, your book is a whole lot longer, and quite frankly, it can get out of control.

Showing everything can be exhausting for both you and the reader if you do it constantly. Scenes that you really want to stand out may not be as impactful if you write every one of them out in exquisite detail. Save the showing for the details that matter and don’t drag things out unnecessarily. Longer verse has a tendency to slow down the pacing. Sometimes, you just need to tell and get on with it. Give the reader a way out.

Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.

Ernest Hemingway

While there are times telling is the way to go, we can still learn a lesson from Ernest Hemingway. Whether or not his writing is to your taste, his writing was simple and concise but lived according to show don’t tell. The Sun Also Rises is only 256 pages. It goes to show that you do not need a lot of words to paint a scene. All it takes is a clear voice. Shout it out!

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