Many writers believe in placing the burden on the reader they don’t think it’s our job to communicate clearly–they think it’s the reader’s job to parse our words and figure out what we’re trying to say. Whether we’re communicating ideas, information, or stories, the burden is on us to make sure that we are communicating clearly and effectively. As writers, our job is to communicate with readers. I believe writing, at its heart, is a form of communication. While I respect your opinion, I would have to disagree. I’d appreciate your opinion on that if you so choose to watch it, Melissa, or anyone else on here who frequent the comment sections 😀 Reply *Here’s a video of my fake review of Twilight presenting the challenge of reading it for educational purposes: Just one of the many critiques I’ll have for it when I release a proper review. And although the book reads at a good pace, it sometimes slows down due to telling instead of showing. Probably because I’ve been reading Twilight (due to a challenge my friends gave me)*, and Stephanie Meyer does a lot of telling instead of showing. I don’t know why, but I felt like I was over writing when I took the time to explain the physical cues that expressed a character’s emotion, but that’s what I was supposed to be doing after all lol. That chart reaffirmed that I’ve been doing it right. Think of some simple ideas that you could show readers instead of telling them.Īre there any writing tips that you hear frequently but don’t quite grasp? Share your thoughts and questions by leaving a comment, and make sure when you’re writing, you show, don’t tell.Īw yes, one of the first few things I learned in Creative Writing class. “At ease,” James called out before relaxing into the Captain’s chair. Sheena has three piercings in her face and wears her hair in a purple mohawk. Kate rubbed her eyes and willed herself to keep them open.Ĭharlie wore dark glasses and was accompanied by a seeing-eye dog. We can turn Checkhov’s explanation into a writing exercise in which we show, don’t tell readers our ideas: Tell Instead of intellectually registering what you’re telling them, they fully imagine what you’re showing them.
When you show, you’re using words to create a scene that readers instantly visualize.
He gulps, she bats her eyelashes, and readers get the picture. You can tell your readers that two characters met and were instantly attracted to each other, or you could show the characters meeting, making eye contact, and checking each other out. We can apply the same concept to writing. I once heard a lecturer give a talk about love, and he made a good point: it’s not enough to tell someone you love them you have to show people that you love them through your actions. Ironically, the best way to explain it is to show, rather than tell, what it means, and I don’t think anybody’s done that better than Anton Checkhov:ĭon’t tell me the moon is shining show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Chekhov (source: Goodreads) Oh, I Get It It even has its own Wikipedia page! Along with the advice “write what you know” and “know your audience,” it’s one of those writing-related adages that deserves some explanation because it seems counterintuitive and raises a bunch of questions. Show, don’t tell is often doled out as writing advice, and it frequently appears on lists of writing tips. Since then, I’ve worked with plenty of young and new writers who have expressed embarrassment at having to admit they’re not sure what show, don’t tell means. Nevertheless, the phrasing of these writing tips perplexed me. The irony, of course, is that my writing was packed with imagery I was more prone to showing than telling. Images in poems? We’re supposed to be writing, not drawing! This kind of talk didn’t make sense to me either. What a great image! The images in the first stanza don’t go with the images in the second stanza. In poetry studies, we talk a lot about imagery. A couple of times, it appeared in red on my papers with an arrow pointing to a specific sentence or paragraph. Then I took a poetry class and had a big aha moment where show, don’t tell became abundantly clear. I spotted it in books and articles on the craft of writing.
Show what? Isn’t writing all about telling a story?Īt the time, I shrugged it off as some kind of mysterious double-talk, but the phrase kept popping up: show, don’t tell. The first time I heard the advice “show, don’t tell,” I was young and it confused me.
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