Show versus Tell is an age old battle for writers. Deciding when to show your world to your readers and when to tell them facts is a balancing act. Good writing requires both styles. In the last blog, we covered when to tell. This blog focuses on showing—the powerhouse of writing.
Showing gives your reader a more immersive experience. It’s the difference between reading a newspaper article and a novel. One gives the facts with a sprinkling of details and description. The other invites the reader to experience the story along with the character. It’s engaging.
Showing will…
Bring Readers Closer to the Action
Sticking to the facts keeps your reader at a distance. By showing what the character senses and experiences (i.e. feels) pulls your reader into the action. Go deeper. Show the heat of the gun after it fires, the greasy fingernails of your suspect, and the shiny blade your villain carries. Show how your character feels about what is happening through his actions and reactions. Let him collapse onto the floor in exhaustion, draw a knife on the detective or caress the cheek of the woman he loves. Put your reader into the scene by letting her be a part of it, not an observer.
Offer Specifics
Details and specifics eliminate the ambiguity. She doesn’t run to a red car. She slips and slides on the wet pavement as she races to the door of a red Mustang, stabbing her key into the lock again and again. This clearly shows she is running from someone or in a hurry (context will alert your reader which is the right motivation) and gives the reader a clear image of her surroundings. It’s not a bland red car, but a red Mustang that she is scratching as she tries to open the lock. It’s important to offer a clear image so your reader sees what you do. Don’t have your character dismiss his subordinate. Have him turn his back and walk out without a word. Details paint your scene. She doesn’t have red hair. She has hair that burns in the sunlight.
Evoke Emotion
Use description to create emotion. Show how your character feels about a place by carefully choosing the words you use to describe it. There is a huge difference between saying someone is sad and showing them listless and weepy. As Checkov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Immerse Your Reader in the Scene
Showing places your reader into the center of the story. You do this by going deeper with your writing and your POV. Let your reader fully experience what your character does through vivid language and clues so they can deduce how your character feels in that moment. It’s the difference between “it was a party” and “music flowed over the lawns where it merged with twinkle lights. Guests clad in black tie and full length gowns swayed in rhythm as they chatted about life’s difficulties over canapés and fizzy drinks.”
Increase Compassion and Understanding
Showing details allows your readers to feel, which automatically deepens their ability to identify with your characters and feel compassion for their situation. Telling is straight-forward and superficial. It holds your reader at arm’s length and doesn’t allow for shared emotion. Showing is the opposite. It goes deeper and taps into the reader’s emotions, which is where sympathy lives. Showing is the only way to have your reader grabbing for the tissues.
Add Tone and Mood
Details create the tone and mood. Use concrete nouns and strong verbs to set your stage. Highlight those elements that have meaning to the story, whether it’s helping develop character or story. Remember to include how your character feels about her setting and situation by sharing her opinion through description. If she describes a house as “a rotten excuse for a home” your reader will know that home was not a happy place for her. On the other hand, if you describe a home that is falling down and shabby with loving terms, your reader will understand that despite its outer state, your character loves this house and her memories of her time in it. The words you choose to describe the setting will alert your reader to your character’s state of mind.
Tap Into Imagination and Heart
Like compassion and understanding, vivid details help your reader imagine the character’s world. Tapping into your reader’s imagination helps settings come to life. Think Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books or Middle Earth in Tolkien’s books. You can accomplish this by adding vivid details and paying close attention to description. Your job is to show your world to your reader. You can’t do that by telling them what it looks like. You have to show them.
Tips for Showing versus Telling:
Show Details
Don’t tell how a character wants to die, show him holding the gun to his head. Don’t tell your reader how shy your character is, show her standing in the corner of a party all by herself with her head down to avoid eye contact.
Watch Your POV
When you limit your story to a specific point of view, you automatically limit your ability to tell. Whether you choose first person, second, limited third, or multiple third, you are embedding your reader into that point of view. All information is filtered through that POV. In the case of the omniscient POV, your reader is able to dip into many characters and receive information from the narrator. You can use telling with the narrator, so be careful how and when you choose to do that. The deeper POV options (first, second, limited and multiple third) reduce your chances of telling. Just keep in mind that your reader can only sense what your character does. This will help keep you in show mode.
Use Expressive Dialogue
Dialogue is a great way to convey information without telling. Dialogue also allows you to add action to the scene while evoking a vivid images. But avoid dumping observations on your reader. Make sure your character is immersed in the scene so you don’t creep toward telling between lines of dialogue.
Description
Use your senses to dive deeper into your description. Include details about how your character feels about the details you include. Don’t just use sight to create a world. Use all the senses. (Look for a series on senses coming soon.)
Be Specific
Use strong action verbs and concrete nouns. Avoid using adverbs, which weaken verbs, and adjectives, which weaken nouns. Write vividly and watch your word choice.
Keep It Active
Avoid passive voice. There are a few ways to do this. One of the easiest is to keep it active by eliminating “was” from your writing.
Not: She was reading the report.
But: She read the report.
Not: He was running away from the burning building.
But: He raced away from the burning building.
The verb “to be” in all its forms is the path to passive voice. Try to eliminate it whenever possible.