The Art of Writing: Show Or Tell?

When writing, there are a number of varying thoughts about how to build your story. One of the more commonly discussed topics I have come across is the Show vs Tell debate.

Let's describe this a bit shall we?

In writing, practitioners of the Tell  school believe that an author (that's you, by the way) should focus on simply stating what is going on in a scene. When Telling, the author focuses less on the description surrounding an event and focuses more simply stating that the event happened.

An example of a *Telling* sentence is: The dog bit the boy

On the other hand, practitioners of the Show school believe that an author should focus on creating very descriptive sentences and paragraphs in order to pass along a graphic representation of an event. In Showing sentences, the author focuses more on describing how the event happened.

An example of a Showing sentence is: In a gory display of animalistic aggression, the enraged dog tore a chunk of flesh off the terrified boy's thigh.

Over the last couple of years, I have dipped my toes in both methods and I've come to realize that none of the two methods are intrinsically wrong; rather, they have their advantages, disadvantages and points where they should be used in your writing.

I'll try to summarize my opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of both methods as simply as possible:

Telling

+Very good for quick summaries of past events

+Very good for opening conversations between characters

-Terrible at creating lasting imagery for your reader

-Can lead to a boring and unemotional story

Showing

+Very good for explaining/describing the surroundings or features of your story (eg: the appearance of a character or the features of a house)

+Very good for continuing conversations between characters and for expressing emotional impact of events

-The author can easily lose track of events while trying to describe every little detail

-Can lead to an over-bloated story that is filled with too much detail and easily tires the reader.

As I stated earlier, there is no inherently better choice between the two; in fact, based on my experience, I'd say that the two are like chocolate and vanilla. Different, useful in their own ways and forming a surprisingly potent result when combined.

My advice when it comes to dealing with the Show vs Tell debacle is simple: put yourself in the place of the reader. Did that description of 'x' character running home really need to be described down to the most intricate detail? Shouldn't that house -which played a crucial role later in the story- have been given a bit more detail so the ending didn't seem so abrupt?

If you can put yourself in the mind of your readers, you might be able to see where showing would work better than telling and vice versa.

I really hope this helped you; don't give up on your dreams and I hope to have your books in my library in the near future.

Have a great day!