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Home » What Does ‘Show Don\’t Tell’ Mean in Creative Writing?

What Does ‘Show Don\’t Tell’ Mean in Creative Writing?

Creative writing refers to the art and practice of writing creatively, for creativity’s sake. A good creative writer is usually someone who can string words together in new and exciting ways to tell stories that are both entertaining and thought-provoking. However, a lot of people get creative writing wrong – they think that it just means ‘telling a story’ or ‘using creative language’, which can be an element of it but not the whole thing.

The ‘show, don’t tell’ rule applies to all aspects of creative writing. It means breaking the traditional ‘write this down’, ‘go over that again’, ‘fill in the blank’ habit that too many journalists fall into. This, in turn, makes the writing much more interesting and engaging for the reader.

Here are some of the basic rules of thumb for showing don’t telling:

Show, Don’t Tell

The very first and most critical rule of thumb for a creative writer is to ‘show, don’t tell’. The rule stems from the principle that readers should be able to figure out the story on their own, without additional explanations from the author. The author should guide them, but not too much. Readers should be able to engage with the writing and experience the story as the author intended. In other words, the writer should show, rather than tell, the events that lead up to the story’s climax.

Let’s take the example of ‘Cinderella’. In the classic fairy tale, a beautiful young woman named Cinderella finds herself in the situation of many unfortunate fairy tales: her stepmother wants to shut her away in a broom closet because she’s not pretty enough, her stepsisters are competing to be the one to throw her down the stairs, and her poor, pathetic father is too weak to stand up for her. One day, she sneaks out of the closet and into a magnificent ball gown, which fits her perfectly, and she dances her way to the rescue of the evening.

The scene is magnificent. We see Cinderella in all her glory, surrounded by her glass slippers, ready to take on the entire world. However, we never actually learn what happens before the glass slipper scene. The book could end here. The reader would understand that Cinderella was successful in defeating her stepfamily and becoming the lady of the house, because she was pretty and smart. We don’t actually need to see Cinderella’s entire story to understand that she was successful and beautiful, so the writer could have ended it there. They could have written ‘and then she lived happily ever after’ or some such thing. However, the writer decided to include an additional scene where Cinderella meets the prince and they fall in love.

In this scene, the author reveals a piece of information that wasn’t needed to fully understand what was going on in the previous scene. The writer could have easily removed this scene and the story would have made perfect sense. The ‘show, don’t tell’ rule prevents the author from giving too much away in the exposition and keeps the story from feeling too predictable. In the case of ‘Cinderella’, we don’t know what the stepmother intends to do with her because she never says anything. The book could have ended here and the story would still make perfect sense. But instead, the author chose to show us that the stepmother intends to lock her away in a closet, proving that she isn’t fit to be the lady of the house.

Show Versus Tell

The second rule of thumb for a creative writer is to ‘show, versus tell’. This rule states that the author should use scenes to reveal information, while withholding information, or giving it in a roundabout way, through dialogue or other characters’ thoughts, should be avoided.

Let’s take the example of ‘Little Women’. The book is set in the 1860s and follows the adventures of four young women living in New York City. The author, Louisa May Alcott, uses various scenes to show how the different characters interact and what is going on in the outside world. For example, she could have easily written a scene where one of the girls finds a recipe for gingerbread and makes it herself, without drawing attention to the fact that she is, in fact, gingerbread girl.

In this scene, the author is telling us that there is something special about the gingerbread; she is using dialogue and other characters to do this. However, if the author had chosen to show us this through a scene, she could have placed the gingerbread in a nice, little box, along with a sign that says ‘made special by Ava‘ – this would have been a small enough piece of information that it wouldn’t have detracted from the fun of the story and prevented the reader from feeling cheated. She could have even written a short paragraph at the end of the scene, hailing Ava as an excellent baker and gingerbread girl.

This is a common issue with most journalists, who think that ‘telling’ is the same thing as ‘writing’ and ‘showing’ is the same thing as ‘telling’ or ‘writing’ for shock value or dramatic effect. If you’re following the example of ‘Cinderella’, the stepmother could have easily told us that she’s going to lock her away in a closet. But showing it through a scene, with all the feelings and reactions that entails, makes it much more powerful. In the scene, Cinderella finds herself in an awkward position and her stepmother’s cruel taunts suddenly seem terrifyingly real. This is the kind of moment that would have made a wonderful ending to the story.

Descriptions Vs. Action

The third rule of thumb for a creative writer is to ‘describe, not explain’. The rule prevents the author from over-describing the action in the story. Good action writers use action to show what is going on rather than telling the reader, through dialogue or descriptions, what is happening. In other words, they ‘show, don’t tell’.

Let’s take the example of ‘The Great Gatsby’. In this famous American novel, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses various descriptive tools to paint a picture of the Jazz Age, which was happening during the time that he set the story. Some of the tools that he uses include detailed accounts of parties and dances, which were popular at the time, along with some truly amazing language that would not be out of place in a medieval bestiary. The point is that while the language is incredible, it is used to show, not to explain. He uses it to paint a picture, in the same way that good photographers use natural light to show the beauty of a flower, rather than using flashlights or putting the flower in a bowl with some other flowers to simulate natural light.

In this scene from ‘The Great Gatsby’, the author is showing us, not telling us, that the girl in the yellow dress is Daisy, the daughter of the man that Nick and the narrator met earlier in the story. He is using dialogue and other characters to guide the reader to this conclusion, rather than simply stating it. In this case, the author is trying to show us that Daisy’s beauty is so extraordinary that it could be used to cast a spell, or ‘hex’, on other people. This scene is a great example of how to use the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule and descriptions to create images, and an image, in turn, is what makes an artwork ‘art’. Without these images, we would be deprived of the feeling that the author is trying to convey. As a creative writer, that is exactly what we want to avoid.

Humor Vs. Drama

The fourth rule of thumb for a creative writer is to ‘use humor, not drama’. The rule prevents the author from turning a normally funny scene or event into a ‘sad story’, filled with a lot of dialogue and characters talking ‘to’ each other, rather than to the reader. Humor and drama shouldn’t be used in the same scene, but they can and often are, especially in creative writing. The trick is to make sure that the humor doesn’t outweigh the drama. For example, in the classic fairy tale, ‘Snow White’ (1864), the drama is absolutely terrifying: the queen attempts to murder Snow White, because she wants to sleep with the king, who is Snow White’s father. The humor is that the queen ends up mutilating herself, after she cuts off her fingers, in a fit of madness, after realizing that she’s been tricked. In this case, the author is using humor to counterbalance the horror that is unfolding in the drama. It is a wonderful example of how to use the rules of thumb to create an interesting and funny scene.