What Are You Showing? Two Vital Components of Powerful Scenes

By Heather Sellers

Most of us are familiar with the dictum, “show, don’t tell.” Allow your reader to participate in making meaning with you, don’t bore them with explanation.  When I teach, I love to quote Dinty W. Moore: “Show a lot, tell a little, never explain”—the best recipe for calibrating scene, summary, and reflection that I’ve ever come across. Many writers rely on scenes—units of dramatic action, playing out in real time—to carry the weight of the narrative through showing.  

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