Your introduction to 'Show, Don't Tell'.

Lesson #1: What is 'Show, Don’t Tell?'


In the history of well-intentioned writing aphorisms, the only piece of advice that gets used more than “write what you know” and “kill your darlings” might be the ever-popular “show, don’t tell.”


Hi, I'm Arielle! In this writing course, my colleagues and I from the Reedsy blog team will be breaking down this golden rule of writing and look at:

  • Why it’s so popular; 
  • How you can incorporate it into your writing; 
  • Examples of Show, don’t tell at play; and 
  • When not to follow this rule (as with any writing advice, there is a fine balance).

For today, let’s get the ball rolling with some basics.

What is show, don’t tell?

Show, don’t tell is an approach to writing in which stories and characters are conveyed via actions, thoughts, words, and sensory details — instead of cold, factual exposition. 


While the true origin is disputed (some point to Percy Lubbock’s 1921 book, The Craft of Fiction), popular culture has attributed it to Russian writer Anton Chekhov and his (commonly misquoted) line:


Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.


Chekhov would choose to illustrate a night-time scene by providing readers with sensory details and context clues rather than flat-out statements.


Why is it so popular?

Show, don’t tell (or “SDT” as we’ll refer to it for brevity's sake) is meant to facilitate an immersive reading experience. Instead of asking readers to process a story on a purely intellectual level, this writing rule intends to pull readers into the narrative, allowing them almost to experience it firsthand.


Storytelling should be a sensory experience. To move forward, you might only need the reader to know that the market square was busy, but readers want more. What does it feel like to be there? The sounds, the smells, how it feels to be jostled about by the crowds.


Many readers also enjoy the minute-by-minute detective work that takes place when they’re asked to interpret why the narrator has, for example, chosen to describe a bead of sweat trickling down the forehead of the High Court judge. Is he just hot — or is he nervous? By employing SDT, the author can encourage their reader to engage with the story as an active participant.


And finally, SDT is simply a way of encouraging writers to not lean so heavily on exposition — to activate the readers’ senses and tell their story in a more subtle, emotionally engaging way.

Writing exercise

Let’s wrap-up this first lesson with two small exercises. The first one will deal with developing characters through showing, as mentioned above:

  • Head to Reedsy’s blog post about character quirks. 
  • Scroll down to the ‘Personality traits’ and ‘Strengths and Weaknesses’ sections.
  • Pick one item from either list and write a brief scene in which you demonstrate these traits without mentioning the words themselves.

The second exercise involves developing a sense of setting. Think back to Chekhov’s “glint of light on the broken glass” adage, and rewrite this line by Edward Bulwer-Lytton — perhaps the most famous example of telling:


It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents…


That’s all for today, folks! Tomorrow, you’ll be receiving a lesson from Savannah on the “iceberg theory.” Don’t want to wait? Download our ebook in your preferred format below to get all 10 lessons at once!

Stay tuned,

Arielle

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