SHOW, DON'T TELL

SHOW, DON'T TELL

SHOWING brings readers into the story instead of keeping them as distant observers. I usually quote Anton Chekov. "Don't tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass."

And usually my students ask what I mean. What does "show, don't tell" actually mean and how can it be accomplished?

It's almost a cliché when writing instructors give students this age-old advice. I must admit that I suggest this revision at least once a week.

SHOWING is accomplished through specific and sensory detail, the smells and sounds, what is seen and heard and how something tastes.

Concrete nouns and the right action verbs also contribute to showing.

Authors must work with the immediate physical and emotional actions of their story characters. SHOWING evokes feelings through the use of 1) specific detail, 2) action verbs, and 3) active voice.

As John Gardiner says, "It's by being convincing in the reality and detail of how we evoke our imagined world— by what the characters do and say—that we persuade the reader to read the story we're telling as if it really happened, even though we all know it didn't."

Dialogue is a good way to show. Dialogue is action.

Characters are speaking and interacting. Like in a movie scene, this is action.

Authors, however, must make dialogue count. It must not be meaningless dialogue. instead, it must reveal character and move the story forward. 

Careful consideration to the way each character speaks is important. The dialogue must be right so that what characters say is consistent with who they are, the way they talk, and how they think about things. People speak differently, with attitude, tone of voice, and hardly anyone ever speaks in complete sentences.

SHOWING is dramatic and makes readers feel in the moment with the character and the action taking place.

TELLING is perfectly acceptable, useful for exposition, a way to cover ground as a narrator, and a way to supply information.

TELLING is hearing something secondhand. It describes the situation rather than the story, but it's SHOWING that makes the story come alive and brings readers into a scene. 

Specific details, action verbs, good dialogue and active voice can accomplish this all important feat and improve the work-in-progress dramatically.