I know, I know, reading this post, many of you are rolling your eyes. This is the main rule of creative writing—the one that you will hear over and over again in doing any research on how to effectively write in a creative domain.
So why am I writing this? Two reasons. One, I didn't know this rule when I first started—new writers still need to learn this too. I'm hoping this may be the place a few people do. Second, no matter how many times you may have heard this, not everyone can flawlessly implement it. Hell, I struggle hard with implementing it.
In our first, skeletal drafts, it is much easier and cleaner to write "she was happy" or "he was scared" rather than showing what was stated.
Let me back up. Show don't tell is essentially describing using actions, words, senses, or feelings instead of just declaring this in short sentences that lack a story-telling feel. That is the concept behind showing what you're writing about instead of telling.
It allows for readers to experience your story in a more cinematic sense; to understand the plot, the world, and the characters on a deeper level.
So what are some examples?
Telling: "She was backed against the pole. She could see nothing. She was scared."
Showing: "Her breath caught in her throat as her back slammed into the concrete behind her. Her sweaty palms were clutching the extra fabric of her sweatshirt as she stared into the darkness before her. With her heart pounding, she slowly turned to the sounds behind her."
Now, this is clearly oversimplified. Very rarely would people write like the first line, and even in my example of showing instead of telling, there were remnants of telling. This is the main reason I write this post.
The concept of showing instead of telling isn't difficult to grasp—it's highly logical and after researching a few examples, it's very easy to understand.
The problem is, writing a novel isn't always so clear cut. And books are long. They aren't a few short sentences to expand on as done above. There are times when using showing instead of telling is illogical, or unnecessarily verbose. In every professionally published books, there are times when the authors use showing, and many times when they tell the reader instead.
So here's what I'd recommend for deciphering: Use showing instead of telling in the highly emotional scenes, and any slower scenes/lulls in the plot.
In terms of highly emotional scenes, or ones that build character, I think that showing is necessary to help the reader form attachments and feel the true weight of the scene. I think that's where the use of showing is most valuable.
For the slower scenes, on the other hand, the use of showing keeps the reader engaged, invested, and interested. It's definitely more fluid and cinematic to show during action scenes, but at least there, the plot and the action occurring is your main focus.
In a slower scene, being verbose, or showing is what will keep the reader engaged and invested because there is less action to distract from the prose.
Of course, ideally you would show in all parts of writing, but to balance it when first starting out, I'd recommend to focus most of your showing in scenes where there is less action and info-dumps more commonly occur, as well as highly emotional scenes.
The more you write, the easier it will be to decide when to show, and to implement it more fluidly in your writing, but these are the tips I have when first doing it.
