A Simple Guide To Showing Vs. Telling
How to avoid description becoming a great big info dump.
One of the first things a new fiction writer hears when they start to show their work to other people for feed back is to show instead of tell.
Show vs. Tell is so ubiquitous in the writing world that it’s often given as a rule just like that. Just three little words. Show don’t tell.
But it’s easier said than done, especially if you’re foggy on what exactly showing and telling mean.
Let’s start with some vocabulary.
Telling means narrative. It’s exposition. It’s a paragraph or two describing something that has happened.
Telling is experiential. The reader experiences with the character.
Showing means scene. It’s putting your reader into the story with your characters. It’s a section of your story, almost always with dialogue, that describes what is happening as it happens.
Showing is relational. The character relates an experience to the reader.
Here’s an easy way to tell the difference: Showing is taking a friend to a party with you. Telling is texting them the juicy details in the morning.
