Show, Don't Tell Is The Worst Advice For A New Writer

When I was completing my Creative Writing degree every writing class I took would spit the advice Show, Don't Tell at us almost before they even introduced the class or gave us our first assignment. 

If I think back I'm pretty sure even one of the creative writing teachers at my first college when I had only taken it as a concentration under an English degree, had it as a poster with obnoxious blue and yellow colors and strange-looking cartoon figures. 

As a new writer this advice can be damaging because while it gets writers in the mindset that they should be showing the reader everything, it often gets them into the mindset that they can never tell anything - ever. 

Gather around writers, it's time to take a trip back to elementary school. Do you have your snack and your preferred spot on the rug? Good, because it's time to remember a special thing we have already been taught. 

Show and Tell. 

When the advice Show, Don't Tell is tossed at writers it never comes with instructions so the writer is left trying to build it with what they know. 

So, if my character is walking up thirty flights of stairs I have to show her on each landing taking step after step or if my character went to the airport to fly to her ex-boyfriend's house I have to show her going through security, the gate, the flight, the taxi, what movie she watches, what snack she picks, and whether or not the person next to her hogs the armrests. 

This is how writers go from needing to build a bookcase to somehow building a desk. Sure they'll both hold your books, but one of them will do it better. 

Writers are advised to Show, Don't Tell without the most important part. For that bookshelf it was the instructions, for their novel it's the context. 

There are going to be times in your novel when it's best to tell your reader what happened. 

To Provide Background Information- Imagine if your protagonist discovers this ancient artifact that gives power to whoever wields it as long as they place inside of it a tuff of fur from a golden cat only found in one remote part of the world. 

Your reader doesn't need to be brought back in time to see how this artifact got its power, its context is important to the story, but the reader only needs enough information to know why they need to know about it. Instead of taking an entire chapter to send the reader through a flashback, have another character tell them about it in a paragraph or two. 

To Speed Up Time- That golden cat only found on the other side of the world? It's a long journey for your characters, but it shouldn't be for your readers unless there is an active action your protagonist is performing and even then if they are stealing a boat - you can tell your reader in a sentence or two that they stole a boat. 

Most readers have been through enough TSA lines in real life to know that the process can drag on, they don't need to experience the half-hour-long wait in fiction as well. 

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When a boy brings in his pet turtle for Show and Tell (even though pets are not allowed,) he doesn't tell the class what a turtle is. They are shown the turtle, but they are told that his favorite food is a mushroom. 

Show, Don't Tell is great advice when teaching writers to write about emotions, the reader should be shown the character's anger in the way she balls her fists, they shouldn't be told "she was angry." 

With all things, there is a middle ground and balance to be found that incorporates both Showing and Telling effectively in writing. 

Class is dismissed. 

With love, 

B.K. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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