Showing and Telling by Kayleigh Hartt and Emma Pullen

I found Show Don’t Tell the weirdest advice I was ever given when it came to writing. Due to the nature of thinking that you told a story not so much as showed the reader the story. Yet with the idea and concepts behind showing and telling I understand why such technique is important and well used.  Show Don’t Tell is the most common term for Showing and Telling, in which an author especially uses this to convey strong emotions or set the scene. However it can be used quite badly when it comes to inexperienced writers. 

 

Many people believe that you should use much more showing then telling due to more readers or even authors believing that showing creates a much better atmosphere in which this helps create the story. However this is not the case, both aspects have equal value as you can always use too much of either of them which is where the inexperience comes into play.

Show, Don’t tell sounds like an easy phrase with an easy technique to help you go forward in your writing however most of the time a lot of people may or may not spot when they are using it unless they are doing it deliberately to gain a reaction from the reader. Showing allows emotions, thoughts and feelings to be evoked with uses of changing sentence structure and words to allow a different type of sentence to form. Whereas with telling the reader something you are directly telling them about the situation and informing them of what is going on.

Like I said before both have their equal rights and Telling is very much so undermined by Showing although you can be really bad at showing. Sometimes you really do need to be straight with the reader, point out the obvious and tell them the situation that are currently reading to get the point across whether it be serious or emotional however in most case’s you can get away with showing the reader.

Also I found that typically it shouldn’t really be named show don’t tell, it should be named Show and Don’t JUST tell as that really emphasis that fact that it is okay to tell because sometimes that’s all you can do.

 

Here is when and where you should show the readers what happened?

·         Conflict - in the mind of the character or with another character or society.

·         Setbacks or obstacles that prevent the character from achieving his or her goal

·         Turning point, such as an illness, marriage, break up and job loss

·         Crisis - such as when you or the character runs out of options and must make a painful and stressful decision.

Showing the reader what happened in areas like this are areas that can really bring out emotions. Using all five sense are one of the main aspects that helps you really develop Showing and Telling.

Here is how you can show your readers a character or what happened?

·         Sensory imagery - use language that appeals to the sense of sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing

·         Vivid details that are concrete, specific, particular

·         Metaphor and simile

·         Symbolism - something or some object that represents more than its literal meaning.

·         Personification - using descriptions, traits, adjectives applied to human beings to describe things that are not human. Example: The rock growled at us as we walked past.

 

Here is how you can show your readers by constructing a scene?

Creating a scene is one of the main aspects that need to be broadcasted in a story. You need to help the reader understand and feel the world they are stepping into when they are reading. There are a lot of details you can add that help to craft the scene you need without actually telling the reader where they are.

You can craft a scene with the following characteristics:

·         Dialogue - what is said by characters in the story, both the main character and supporting cast.

·         Action - describing the conduct of the character with significant details.

·         Sensory imagery - language that appeals to the sense of sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing.

·         Details - significant and particular details; sensory images.

·         Descriptions – Concrete and specific descriptions.

However sometimes, you’ll be required to tell your readers what happened by compressing time and leaving out many of the important, particular details. Essentially, you’ll summarize what happened. There are many suggestions or guidelines that you can use to help you determine when to show and when to tell. When telling someone it can be one of the easier techniques to slip into because you don’t realise you are actually doing it. Telling is an automatic reaction but it can also be one of the most powerful techniques to use in certain situations.

Here is when you should tell your readers what happened?

·         Backdrop of the story – setting of the story, such as time and place and context

·         Exposition - The writer provides the reader with background details about plot, setting, character, theme.

·         Interpreting an experience or event - Sometimes you will need to explain the significance of a scene.

·         Repeated experiences - such as daily rituals or events.

Also when telling you can make telling a lot more exciting in certain ways by writing a summary. Although it can become a list of things a character has done it can also show their personality in just one snippet of time.

Jane Burroway in Writing Fiction suggests that there are two ways to write a summary:

·         Sequential summary - The writer tells the reader what has happened with a condensed and compressed version of the story. Significant details are omitted.  Instead, the story is summarized.

·         Circumstantial summary - The writer uses summary to describe the circumstances for repeated details or what has happened, such as time, place, cause, effect, reasons for occurrence.

Essentially in the end you should use both. Both Showing and Telling have their equal attributes you just need to use and utilise them to their full extent, and in the end, nothing is better than telling someone point blank that a main character has died.