Skip to main content

Show Vs. Tell: Round 1

Hands up if a critic has told you ‘show don’t tell’ (SDT). Keep that hand up if you found it rather unhelpful at the time or if that critic didn’t elaborate much. Yes, it’s a pesky phrase. Showing rather than telling can be a pretty powerful tool, and here's what it really means:

Showing brings your words to life, creates imagery, and lets the reader know exactly what’s going on. It doesn’t tell you facts explicitly, but builds an idea in your head so that usually you understand it in far more detail than you would have. Good writing makes you realise a fact without being told it straight.

As a writer it forces you to explore your imagination further really think about your story and your characters. It adds depth.

*But showing is not always better than telling.*

Telling adds pace. It moves the story along and sums up ideas that may be unclear if let to just showing. It doesn’t try to add detail to a relatively boring fact. It lets you know what piece of information is important and avoids using dialogue in an awkward manner.

It’s a useful tool for when the imagery isn’t particularly important. A story that builds up detail into every sentence can be tedious to picture and can feel irrelevant sometimes.

Use telling wisely. Too much of it and your story will fall flat. The reader might not be able to picture your scene. They might fill in the blanks with their imagination which could later clash with yours.

A good story has a balance between the two. SDT is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot and it should be, but it often happens for the wrong reasons. In my next few articles I will delve a little deeper, explaining how and when to use it, and how to tweak your story if you keep getting SDTs.

Comments

  1. I plead guilty to saying SDT in reviews, although I do try to give more specific guidelines. I agree, tell is as useful as show. I found this article that has a lovely bit of 'telling': http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.hk/2013/07/telling-it-well.html It's well worth taking a look at.

    Another useful post, and strikes right at the root of the problem :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers! Another great article.
      Yes, telling can sometimes be a lot more powerful, humorous, quirky, and interesting. Showing is very important too, but it's not the only thing a writer should do.

      Delete
  2. Something I seen people tell my to change in my work is when a character is telling the reader about something. I think this is a different thing to the author telling the audience, because you are showing the character's opinions on that person or thing (and they might well be different to what I as the omniscient author would say.)

    In general I prefer to be shown characters and told about worlds. Trying to to show to much in world_building can slow it down, as you say, can feel wrong in certain genres like hard scifi and can also lead to some very unnatural conversations between characters.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I took my book for a walk

I know what you're thinking...or actually, I don't.  It's easy to picture that anyone who reads your work will only see the negatives. They have every right to, after all, and I'm a big critic myself. I find things to improve in most books, even when I give them five star reviews. This is why solidifying one of my novels into print was a big step for me, and because of Sod's Law, it coincided with one of the hardest times of my life to date. When my book published, I struggled to market it. Besides being crippled with morning sickness, followed by a decent into depression and anxiety (coupled with friends not really liking my book - only softened slightly by the fact they don't like YA/reading), I didn't have the energy - emotionally or physically - to give my book the launch it deserved.  It deserved better.  Because no matter what, I put a lot of work into The Clearing. Over several years and iterations, too. I'm proud of the twists, and I enjoy hearin

Book Review: Threads That Bind

THREADS THAT BIND by Kika Hatzopolou Disclaimer time: As always, the following is just my opinion. Other opinions are available.  THREADS THAT BIND is an epic fantasy with an urban feel. It has a fascinating magic system inspired by Greek mythology, and a story that explores the bonds of sibling relationships. Overall, it's a fast-paced book about fate, choices, and forgiving yourself, so prepare for morally grey moments and difficult sibling relationships.  Io and her sisters are descendants of the Fates, which means they're able to see and manipulate the threads that connect people to the things they love. Io is the third sister, and therefore she is able to cut threads. The story kicks off when Io is hired by the 'mobqueen' to investigate murders linked to vengeful wraiths. To top it off, she has to work with the very person she's been avoiding for years, a boy she's fated to love - except he already has a girlfriend. If you think that the above sounds like t

Indie Book Review: The City of Snow and Stars

THE CITY OF SNOW AND STARS by S.D. Howard 4 Stars Verdict: A dark fantasy with a wholesome cast.  Trigger warning for rape/abuse.  'I'm not wanted for me, only what I can give, and there is nothing left.' I don't usually quote books, but this is a very quotable story! The dialogue was powerful in places, and the way the characters bonded together was the strength of this Christian fantasy adventure.   It's written in third person with a narrative that I personally found a little distant at times. That said, the characters are easy to root for. Runaways Trinia and Jayden team up with a wizard to take down Trinia's abusive father before he can take over the kingdom. They're joined by a talking wolf and a shapeshifter called Batanny, who in many ways seems like an older version of Trinia. Threads of pain run through this book and pull the characters together in a way that makes this dark read still feel wholesome at times.  It soon became an easy to enjoy fant