Skip to main content

Show Don't Tell

Author and Editor Jodie Renner shares some fresh advice on the mantra that most writers have heard at least once in their writing career -- "Show Don't Tell. " 

A common mistake among aspiring fiction writers is to describe or narrate (tell) events as if they took place at some point in the past, instead of putting the reader right in the middle of the action and showing the events as they occur, in real time, along with the characters’ reactions, feelings, and actual words. Readers want to experience a character's fear, feel the sweat on his brow and his adrenaline racing, their pulse quickening right along with the character's,  muscles tensed, ready to leap into action.

Think of the difference between showing and telling this way: Which would you rather do, go see a great movie in a theatre with a big screen and surround sound, or hear about the movie from someone else afterward?

According to Ingermanson and Economy, “Showing means presenting the story to the reader using sensory information. The reader wants to see the story, hear it, smell it, feel it, and taste it, all the while experiencing the thoughts and feelings of a living, breathing character. Telling means summarizing the story for the reader in a way that skips past the sensory information and goes straight to the facts.”

Janet Evanovich considers “show, don’t tell” to be one of the most important principles of fiction: “Instead of stating a situation flat out, you want to let the reader discover what you're trying to say by watching a character in action and by listening to his dialogue. Showing brings your characters to life.”

As Jack Bickham says, “Not only does moment-by-moment development make the scene seem most lifelike, it’s in a scene [with dialogue and action and reaction] where your reader gets most of his excitement. If you summarize, your reader will feel cheated – short-changed of what he reads for – without quite knowing why.”

Shelly Thacker points out, “Readers of popular fiction don’t want to experience the events of your novel at a distance; they want to FEEL what’s happening. They want to laugh, cry, hope, worry.” Shelly advises, “Strive for more dialogue than narrative. … Narrative tends to slow things down and usually leads to telling instead of showing….Showing with action and dialogue creates vivid characters and a fast pace; telling only bogs down your story.”

Also, the bulk of the scene needs to be about a conflict of some kind between characters. No conflict = no scene. According to Jack Bickham, the conflict part of the scene “draws readers out through a moment-by-moment drama, extending the scene suspense with pleasurable agony.”

Of course, you can’t show everything, or your book would be way too long, and it would tire your readers out – or worse, bore them. According to James Scott Bell, “Sometimes a writer tells as a shortcut, to move quickly to the meaty part of the story or scene. Showing is essentially about making scenes vivid. If you try to do it constantly, the parts that are supposed to stand out won’t, and your readers will get exhausted.”

The rule, says Bell, is “the more intense the moment, the more showing you do.” That’s the difference between scene and summary. You don’t want to describe every move your characters make at down times, or when going from one place to the other. That’s where you summarize to get them to the next important scene quickly, without a lot of boring detail. Instead of describing your heroine getting up, getting dressed, having breakfast, brushing her teeth, going out the door, getting into the car, etc., just start with her rushing into the elevator at work, running late for an important meeting.

“Show, don’t tell,” like all rules, has exceptions. Scenes that are important to the story should be dramatized with showing, but often what happens between scenes (transitions) should just be told/ summarized/skipped past, so the story can progress. The objective is to find the right balance of telling versus showing, scene versus summary.

-------
Resources: Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell; The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them) by Jack M. Bickham; Writing Fiction for Dummies, by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy; “10 Tips for a Top-Notch Novel” by Shelly Thacker (www.ShellyThacker.com).

Don't Tell Me, Show Me previous post here at The Blood Red Pencil

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maryann Miller is a freelance writer and editor. Her e-books are: One Small Victory, Play It Again, Sam, and The One O'Clock Nap  For information about her other books and her editing services visit her Web site.  Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Jodie Renner is a former teacher and librarian with a master’s degree and a lifelong passion for reading, especially fiction. Jodie runs her own freelance manuscript editing business at http://www.JodieRennerEditing.com. She also runs a weekly BLOG with tips for writers. 
Bookmark and Share

Comments

  1. I'm often guilty of trying to show everything, which can drag the pace. Mundane stuff doesn't need to be shown. I try to figure out the critical plot points, and if they're not needed until after lunch, there's no point in describing breakfast. (But the first time I wrote "By Friday, they had ...." it was a killer.

    Terry
    Terry's Place
    Romance with a Twist--of Mystery

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ditto what Terry said -- Showing can be a trap for the beginning writer who doesn't realize too much detail destroys a novel's pace.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are so right, Terry and Patricia, about avoiding the danger of showing too much. In a screenwriting class that I took, the instructor cautioned about not including the mundane things of a daily routine unless there is something going on that is important to the story or characterization.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good point, Terry, Patricia and Maryann. James Scott Bell cautions about that. By the way, his book Revision and Self-Editing is just excellent! I recommend it to all my writer clients.

    ReplyDelete
  5. P.S. Thanks for the intro, Maryann. I'm just a freelance manuscript editor, not an author - unless you count articles and my master's thesis! Jodie :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Also, I think describing your main character getting up, having a shower, getting dressed and having breakfast is just a bunch of "telling" anyway.

    Jump to the scene in the elevator as she's late for a meeting at work, or her embarrassed arrival in the meeting, with all eyes on her, or her confrontation with her boss afterward.

    "Showing" is all about dialogue and action and feelings and reactions, and most of all, about tension and conflict.

    If there's no tension, and the scene doesn't drive the plot forward or bring out important character traits or motivations, skip over it with a sentence or just a blank space, and get on to a telling scene, one with lots of "punch."

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm happy to be reminded: less narrative, more dialogue and action. Isn't it true that I'm not the only story teller that might lapse into long-windedness on occassion.
    Thanks Jodie for the great blog. I'll now focus on finding the right balance of telling vs showing, and scene vs summary.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Jodie, I'll be adding a few of your lines to my post-it board. Espcially: The more intense the moment the more "showing" you do.
    Great.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the reminder! I really like this: 'The more intense the moment; the more showing you do'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Della, Emily and Elspeth. It always feels good to help aspiring authors - we all benefit when your novels and short stories become more powerful and get published!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for this, Jodie. I like the way you explain the importance of creating a balance between showing and telling, between scene and summary, with intense scenes being "shown" instead of "told".

    Also, I appreciate how you back up your points with quotes from well-known writers and credit your sources. That way I know it's not just one person's opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Informative and well-explained. thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good post >:)

    I know the show vs tell stuff in theory, but I think it's difficult to actually do it in a good way.

    Cold As Heaven

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great post, thanks. It's always helpful to have this reminder :)

    My critique partners have helped me see that I'm guilty of telling the reader what's to come, and then showing them. So a paragraph of mine often has a foreshadow/tell sentence, then 3 or 4 sentences of showing what I just told. Something I have to keep my eye out for ;)

    Rach

    ReplyDelete
  15. Excellent! This is one of the most important things for new writers to learn.And it can be a challenge.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

The Blood-Red Pencil is a blog focusing on editing and writing advice. If a glitch is preventing you from commenting, visit our Facebook page and drop your wise words there: Blood-Red Pencil on Facebook