What do you think of “Show, don’t tell” rule?

[Snusmumriken]

This is true, but even this depends on the story, genre, tone and length. For example, the book series Animorphs was fantastic with characterisation and very immersive, but every book would start with a couple of pages where the characters meet up and the POV character straightup tells us who's the funny-but-ruthless one, who's the violent-but-conflicted one, who's the red-tailed hawk/bully magnet with depression, etc., and this was the correct choice for the series. Applegate could pull it off because a) it wasn't inconsistent with what was shown later (the smart guy tended to make the smart decisions, the moral treehugger tended to question the morality of their actions, etc.), and b) it was an action series and we had like 90 pages to tell an action story, with absolutely no guarantee that the reader had read any of the previous stories in the 60-ish-book series. So a straightforward, explicit explanation of "here is everyone's relationships and primary character traits" thrown in with the general explanation of the ongoing alien war made perfect sense in that context.

In the majority of cases, if you're dithering between 'showing' and 'telling' something, the correct choice is usually to not be lazy and to 'show'. But there are situations where 'tell' is the right way to go for just about anything, even things where 'show' is the correct choice 99% of the time.

I never said that you have to do it all the time. in fact, I specifically stated that it depends. Obviously short children's stories would rely on quicker and more direct telling exactly because the reader audience might not even be ready yet to pick up on general cues quickly enough to characterize these themselves.

But most of the people here are writing large if not huge stories geared toward a much more mature audience.

 

[morhamza]

The trick is to let readers read between the lines, but sometimes, a little "tell" is necessary. In my first release, readers thought Marc's actions were controlling, so I had to add a little more to show that Joan wanted him to act that way, that he was being supportive rather than controlling.
My friend, who actually met the person Marc is based on, knew without having to be told, but too many of my readers were confused.

So Marc is playing the role of S because his girlfriend's an M? It's an autobiography isn't it?

 

[Ai-chan]

Ai-chan is a fan of 'Show if you can, but don't show too much!'

Nobody cares about what a dog looks like if it has nothing to do with the story. Some western authors take 'show, don't tell' a little too far by explaining and describing absolutely everything. It makes your paragraphs bloated and distracts your readers from the actual story. If it reaches the point that reading becomes a chore, you've showed too much.

You have a knife that can kill demons? Great! You want to describe how it looks like? Awesome! You want to tell the whole history of every demons it killed in one chapter? Please don't do that. You want to talk about its materials, how it's forged and all its awesome powers the moment it's introduced? God no.

Take Supernatural for example, the Kurdish Demon Killing Knife was introduced as a simple weapon that can kill demons in its introduction episode, and that's it. Later we found out that it's called the Kurdish Demon Killing Knife, one of the few weapons that can permanently kill demons instead of just banishing them. Later on we found out that it's no longer useful because it's been rendered obsolete by the mass of angel blades that everyone could get after the angels fell from heaven. But to reach this point, it took two seasons.

 

[Discount_Blade]

I hate the rule and the people who constantly parrot it like it's some kind of ancient chant. If someone asks for writing advice, and that bullshit rule is the only kind of "advice" you have, do yourself and the new writer a favor and shut up.

 

[K5Rakitan]

So Marc is playing the role of S because his girlfriend's an M? It's an autobiography isn't it?

Partially, yes. It's not that simple, though. Have a read, and please give me one star

 

[Vnator]

A lot of people here seem to be saying that exposition is shorter and easier, but as I see it, it can be the opposite.

"Tell" just means that you write something that gets across an idea without spelling it out word for word. Like, if you want the reader to know that the part of town the main character's in right now is poor, don't just say "it's poor, everyone here is broke" along with a paragraph long essay on why it is. Have the MC see things associated with the impoverished state like beggars, street urchins, dilapidated buildings, and the presence of crime. All of that can be covered in a sentence or two as the MC looks around, versus a long explanation that spells out the same thing.

It makes things far more interesting for the reader than reading a paragraph out of an economics textbook or something, and it even helps to set the mood! Readers can imagine more than just sight, so give them the smell of refuse/ash, the sound of coins jiggling in a beggar's cup, the feel of a mist of smog and pollution on their skin and burning their eyes.

 

[Shoemilk]

I hate the rule and the people who constantly parrot it like it's some kind of ancient chant. If someone asks for writing advice, and that bullshit rule is the only kind of "advice" you have, do yourself and the new writer a favor and shut up.

When the "story" is 10 pages of poorly written info-dump, sometimes "show don't tell" is the kindest feedback to be given.

 

[EternalSunset0]

It's one of the advices that on hindsight, I legitimately regret listening to and taking to heart when I started writing my first big project (my series) last year and was asking for some tips as someone trying to learn how to write.

I feel it bogged down and bloated the first few chapters of my volume 1 so much because I had to keep "showing" the world and such. Like establishing the characters and what they do in the mundane situations.

A few people have praised my descriptions and structure in those sections, but I feel it caused my plot to get going too slowly. I remember someone giving the feedback that the big "hook" came after like 20-30 minutes of reading, which really is a no-no I think. Especially in a webnovel format.

Hopefully, I'm getting better at using the advice now, and I'll just rectify those issues when I finish the series and start the series-wide rewrite/polish phase.

 

[Snusmumriken]

It's one of the advices that on hindsight, I legitimately regret listening to and taking to heart when I started writing my first big project (my series) last year and was asking for some tips as someone trying to learn how to write.

I feel it bogged down and bloated the first few chapters of my volume 1 so much because I had to keep "showing" the world and such. Like establishing the characters and what they do in the mundane situations.

A few people have praised my descriptions and structure in those sections, but I feel it caused my plot to get going too slowly. I remember someone giving the feedback that the big "hook" came after like 20-30 minutes of reading, which really is a no-no I think. Especially in a webnovel format.

Hopefully, I'm getting better at using the advice now, and I'll just rectify those issues when I finish the series and start the series-wide rewrite/polish phase.

Imo that sounds like not a problem about showing or telling. it is about how much information is really necessary at the very moment. Quite often, and especially in the first chapters, the question of the answer isn't to show over to tell but to say nothing and leave it for later. Let the plot pick up and then start feeding tidbits on information as the readers get used to the pace.

For example, skipping the description of the 1st scene if the scene won't be relevant for too long. Or trying to tell a lot of important details that won't be relevant in the first ten chapters or so.

 

[EternalSunset0]

Imo that sounds like not a problem about showing or telling. it is about how much information is really necessary at the very moment. Quite often, and especially in the first chapters, the question of the answer isn't to show over to tell but to say nothing and leave it for later. Let the plot pick up and then start feeding tidbits on information as the readers get used to the pace.

For example, skipping the description of the 1st scene if the scene won't be relevant for too long. Or trying to tell a lot of important details that won't be relevant in the first ten chapters or so.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Discount_Blade]

When the "story" is 10 pages of poorly written info-dump, sometimes "show don't tell" is the kindest feedback to be given.

If it's that much info dump, which I think is a very lazy exaggeration on your part btw, then they have far more problems in their writing that "show don't tell" isn't going to help them solve. Like for example, if someone info-dumps that badly, they clearly lack a basic understanding of plot structure.

 

[Mysticant]

To me there are plenty of way to write info dumps, but mostly is shown through actions across several chapters than a single chapter overload. I am still more of a fan of showing but like showing how the thing works in action and not like giving me the entire history of the creation to the end. In fact, I love it when the twist is incorporated into the mechanism so that there is more dynamics.

Personally, my story is pretty top heavy since there are a lot of things to juggle. But I have been avoiding the info overload as a whole and just trying to leave everything to show while in battle or something.

 

[bigbear51]

People really needed a second thread to stroke their egos, didn't they.

 

[SakeVision]

I tell not show all the time
*dabs*

People really needed a second thread to stroke their egos, didn't they.

every single writer forum has this thread at least once a month, and some people came to such proficiency in discussing this topic, that they reuse the same arguments through the means of copypasta

 

[Kuropon]

As someone that has been bombarder with 'Show don't tell' reviews and still has been fairly successful, I don't think much of it xD

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

For me personally, I love both. When the writer ”tell” their story instead of “show”, it makes things progress much faster and easier to digest the informations. Especially in the boring but necessary part in the story, it’ll be quite tedious to read all of that in the “showing” form.

I’m quite a visual person but I have no problem with “telling”. When there are “tellings” in the story, I usually slow down my speed and imagine the scene in my head instead.

Though, when it comes to “showing”, it’s fun if it’s a fight scene, an emotional scene, or a scene with fun characters’ interaction, but other than these scenes, I think “telling” is fine because it’s just speed things up.

What about you guys? What do you think about “showing” and “telling” in a story?

I personally go for showing stuff that is cool, or matters to the perspectivized person, and tell on boring stuff.

 

[BlackKnightX]

I personally go for showing stuff that is cool, or matters to the perspectivized person, and tell on boring stuff.

I love your style~ That’s pretty much how I write, though.