Expressing Emotions, Part One: Introduction

One of the many things authors are told constantly is to show, not tell. This always seemed, to me, like rather vague advice. You pretty much tell your readers what's going on all the time, that's part of what writing is. If you didn't tell them anything there wouldn't be a story.

What I think it really means is tell them, but don't be super obvious about it. Instead of telling the reader your character is angry, for instance, you tell them other things that lead the readers to come to the conclusion that the character is angry. Which is a lot more difficult than just saying "He/she was angry." No, no, you have to be able to make them believe the character is angry without straight-out telling them.

I always saw this as a roundabout way of doing the same thing. You're still telling them the character is angry, it's just instead of saying they're angry, you're gently leading them to figure it out for themselves.

Which is all very important, of course. I just think it's a confusing way of putting it, since you're not really showing anything, you're telling the reader everything. Even if it's "she clenched her hands into fists and her eyes were flashing" rather than "she was angry."

So here's the breakdown of it.

Telling: Is easy. You simply tell the reader how your character is feeling and what they're doing.

Showing: Is hard. You can't just say "He/she felt like this" you have to describe what they're doing, their facial expression, tone of voice, and interaction with people and objects so that the reader will figure out what you're trying to say on their own.

The difference: With telling, you're putting your own conclusions in the text and expecting the reader to follow along. A lot of readers don't like that, being the rebellious sort. With showing, you're still telling the reader what's going on, but they draw their own conclusions.

Example:

Telling: Mary was angry.

Showing: Mary slammed into the house, threw her purse down with more force than necessary, and stomped up the stairs.

In both examples, you're telling the reader that Mary is angry. But in the second example, you're letting the readers come to that conclusion on their own.

With that said, emotions can difficult, so that's what my new series is for. Expressing emotions in your writing. Up next week, we're going to get started with anger. See you then!