1.15.2012

Showing vs. Telling




Show not tell is perhaps the most invaluable and—frequent—instruction I've had since I started to write. Books, forums, critique partners, blogs they all advise that to write good fiction you must show a story, not tell it.

But

No one seems to bother to tell the novice writer how to show it.

In the book Stein on Writing there is an entire chapter dedicated to solving that problem, it's called "How to show instead of tell."

Below is an example of the evolution from telling to showing from that chapter:

He took a walk tells.
He walked four blocks begins to show.
He walked the four blocks slowly shows more clearly.
He walked the four blocks as if it were the last mile shows more by giving the reader a sense of the character's feelings, which the previous version did not.

So, next time writing a scene don't only tell the reader what your character is doing, but show it by characterizing his/her actions. Mr. Stein goes on saying the best way to determine if a scene is showing not telling is by gauging how visual the passage is. More visual, more showing.

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