Writing Lessons & Advice: Show-and-Tell
To the average Joe, the term show-and-tell might conjure up memories from early school days when they or classmates brought special items from home with the purpose of presenting them to peers. The objects on display were anything from favorite toys or trinkets to bizzare, questionable, or adult things kids didn’t fully understand. In a similar vein, writers practice an aptly-named technique of show-and-tell that encourages balance between basic summation and an elaborate delve into detail.
Telling does just that, its a simple statement of an idea, fact, action, etc.
Showing, on the other hand, is what is meant by painting a mental picture. It gives more life to an idea, fact, action, etc. Showing is immersive, incorporating a number of language or content development tools to help a reader “see” what is meant to be visualized or understood.
I actually scratched the surface of this idea in the recipe lesson. The show-and-tell technique is the bigger picture of why word choice and details are important ingredients in good writing. I created an exercise in the previous lesson to show them in action on their own but I’m going to revisit those examples with a focus on this bigger picture.
Telling: We met long ago.
Showing: “We were both young when I first saw you/ I close my eyes and the flashbacks start/I’m standing there on a balcony in summer air/see the lights, see the party, the ballgowns/I see you make your way through the crowd to say hello...(Swift, “Love Story”)
Telling: You’re really pretty.
Showing: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate...”(Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
Telling: It is late and I’m really tired.
Showing: “Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary...”(Poe, The Raven)
Telling: He dislikes Christmas.
Showing: “If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!” (Dickens, A Christmas Carol)
A lot of writing advice will preach “Show, don’t tell”, but there’s a time and place for both. Showing is what makes creative writing... creative writing. Where most essays and professional writing have some kind of purpose to tell, creative writing has more freedom to explore, invent, and build worlds. Telling doesn’t carry a story quite as well without that kind of “spice”, as the above examples illustrate. Plus showing can be a fun part of the writing process if you’re detail-oriented or have an active imagination. Apart from style and purpose, telling is helpful to limit transitional, mundane, or repeated scenes. It can also be the more appropriate approach to sensitive topics and sensitive audiences.
Here are some tips and resources to help you hone the show-and-tell technique.
Some ideal content to show includes character traits, character relationships, setting descriptions, and experiences.
The language or content development tools that “show” in writing include: active voice, dialogue, sensory details, actions, answers to the “W questions”, poetic devices, and imagery.
More tools and media for learning show-and-tell:
One Stop Shop for Writers thesauruses or any other writing or language thesaurus
Hope you better understand what the show-and-tell advice is all about and how to practice it in your own writing!
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Sources/further reading
