Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo 9: Show, Don’t Tell

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo is a multi-part series on writing, creativity, and the work-life balance throughout the month of November. Today we’re talking about showing vs telling.

Show, don’t tell

It’s one of the most maligned pieces of writing advice, second perhaps only to “write what you know.” It’s often one of those old chestnuts that writers think is optional and simple to disregard, but in many cases this is simply because it’s poorly understood.

None of the “rules” of writing are unbreakable, but as with everything else in art, you should violate this principle only with great intent and awareness of what you’re doing. Exposition can be used to great effect, but in most cases, it’s more powerful to show.

Show me

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” – Anton Chekov

First, let’s start with “why” we want to show. Most obviously is that ‘showing’ writing is more entertaining. It’s a tool to establish atmosphere and mood.

A more subtle purpose here is that it provides characterization. How? Every scene, unless you’re writing in an objective perspective, has a viewpoint character. Everything worth describing is shown from this viewpoint character’s perspective. There’s no better way to get into a character’s head than showing us what he feels about the world through the words you choose to use in your description.

This is important. When you show, you’re not just writing as you-the-writer. The phrases you use, the words you choose, they need to reflect the nature of the character doing the observing.

This is why we write descriptively. Not to show off. But to provide viewpoint character characterization.

Now tell me

There are a few reasons to choose expository paragraphs, telling, over the action of showing. The two most common reasons:

Pacing. Expository telling ‘reads’ faster than narrative showing. You can use telling to skip over boring sections that nobody is going to care to read.
Economy of words. If you’re writing a short to a specified wordcount, you can shave off a page or two just by switching to a less descriptive style.

I hope this gives you a new perspective on the question of Showing vs Telling, but ultimately it’s your own style that has to make the determination of when to switch between them.

Next time, we’re going to talk about naming your characters.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

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