Show, don’t tell. How often have you heard that advice? Show the main character balling her fists rather than telling us she’s mad. Illustrate the mood of the setting through descriptive details rather than saying “it felt scary”. Or, to paraphrase Anton Chekhov, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Showing these details helps your readers immerse themselves in your writing. It helps them feel what the characters are feeling, rather than just being told. But how do you show in your writing? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Make your descriptions dual-purpose. Yes, you can describe the scene, but you can also give insights into the POV character by showing what they notice and how they speak; give clues and foreshadowing; set the mood of the scene; and give worldbuilding details (like sharing materials things are made of).
- Engage as many senses as possible.
- Focus on dramatic and climactic moments. Think of it as zooming into the scene in a movie.
- Use strong verbs and be intentional about adverbs.
Showing in these instances is almost always better than telling. But that doesn’t mean telling doesn’t have a place in your story! Telling can be an effective technique if you want to:
- summarize a scene
- speed up the pacing
- focus on other parts of the scene
If you show every single detail, you’ll end up slowing the story down and overwhelming the reader with details. It’s okay to gloss over certain moments in favor of others. For example, if you need your character to get up and go to work for the big announcement/new plot point, you don’t have to show every detail of your character being awakened by their alarm, getting up, brushing their teeth, getting dressed, making coffee, eating breakfast, and driving to work. You can just say “When [character] arrived at work…” Throw in one or two fun details if you’d like—those moments can be great for characterization—but don’t stress about listing every move. As Elmore Leonard said, “try to leave out the parts that people skip.”
I discuss this more in my podcast episode all about show and tell. Let me know what you think!
Writing in the Cracks 