Show Don’t Tell – Well Sometime You Should

Before reading this post, please note that I don’t consider myself a master of the craft. I don’t even consider that I know more than anyone else in this profession. I am not in any way contradicting anyone. This is just an expression of my personal understanding. I am learning and this blog is created to share the experience of the process.

This is yet another advice I have come across so many times – show don’t tell, make your readers feel, take them to the scene, etc, etc. A while back I was reading an interview of Lee Child. According to this bestselling thriller writer – we are telling stories, not showing it. I agree. We are storytellers. We tell tales in our own ways.

Of course, I am not advising anyone to say – Tina was angry and leave it there. When you do that you say nothing about the character. You just mention that a female character is angry. But, who is Tina? How old is she? What is her background? How angry is she? These are the questions that you are not answering. But that doesn’t really mean you should show the readers the exact shade of Tine’s hair color or the length of her skirt (although that might appeal to the male readers).

The point is you are a novelist. You are writing fiction. You are not a movie maker. Leave showing part to James Cameron. As a writer your job is to tell a story.

I have a habit of reading about writing. When I am tired of my own writing or don’t feel like reading another writer’s work, I read about the craft with the hope that I will be able to improve a bit. I have seen that teachers and writers have different opinion about this. Some are ardent supporters of showing and some want to break the rules and create one of their own. What should you do? As a beginner, even as a pro, it might be difficult to decide which approach is better suited for your story.

So, many times, I have stopped my pen (yes, I write my first draft with pen and paper) and pondered how to show this scene. I have tried to show everything in a story. But in the end it sounded like a manual. It took me a long time to realize writing is a fusion of both showing and telling. Too much of either one can make your story a dull read. So, what should you do?

I rather explain what I do as you should choose your own style and manner of writing. I try to understand the genre I am working on. Since I am a mystery writer, my job is easy. I deal with the human minds. So, I can get away with telling sometimes. How else do you portray someone’s thought? Rudransh Ray spends a good deal of time thinking and I need to tell the readers what he is thinking about. Here I have little chance of showing the thoughts.

But when it comes to action scenes, I do show the smell of air and the long stretched shadows. These are good ingredients of mystery writing.

Even if your genre is not mystery, you will have plenty of chances to tell your story. Readers want to know about the characters and to introduce your characters you need to tell them about the mind frame, the thought process. How a character feels is important (and I guess it is the most important part of a story). Therefore, don’t be afraid of telling your story. Rules are there. But you have the liberty of breaking those rules and do what feels right for your story. You are a writer. You are a creator. Don’t restrict yourself or your creativity. Dare to be different.