Why You Should “Show, Don’t Tell”
Let your story come to life on the big screen of your imagination.
No survivors? Then where do the stories come from — I wonder.
― Captain Jack Sparrow
When Pirates of the Caribbean came out, I was enamored with the movie. I loved Johnny Depp’s version of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Why? Because he brought the character to life. He was full of personality, beyond the typical.
Captain Jack, whether by his own devices — which was most often — or because of others’ machinations, meant trouble. The big screen came alive when he stepped into the camera view. That is what your stories need to do. How do you do that?
You show us instead of telling us.
What do you mean to show?
Pat’s brook-brown eyes had been staring through the little round window in the wall above the landing until Judy had made her mysterious remark about the parsley bed. It was her favourite window, opening outward like the port-hole of a ship. She never went up to Judy’s room without stopping to look from it. Dear little fitful breezes came to that window that never came anywhere else and you saw such lovely things out of it. The big grove of white birch on the hill behind it which gave…
