Show versus tell
is the single most important aspect of storytelling
and the one new writers mess up most often.
Agree or disagree?
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Published by Dan Alatorre AUTHOR
USA Today bestselling author Dan Alatorre has 50+ titles published in more than 120 countries and over a dozen languages.
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Dan Alatorre 
If it’s happening right now – show it; if it’s not happening right now, what’s the best way to tell it and get back to the story that’s happening now?
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Interesting. I’ll have to give that some thought. Good job!
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Reblogged this on Viv Drewa – The Owl Lady.
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Agree. But then you have authors who take it too far and bog down their work with too much ‘show’. @v@ ❤
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*Raises hand*
I’ve done that.
I had a scene in a book where a guy had to spend eight or 12 hours stuck at a train station during a worker strike. My editor was like, cut all this. Just say he was stuck all day in the train station!
Brilliant.
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that’s a hard call. I want to disagree and say dialogue is what new writers mess up the most but that’s purely my personal experience from working with teenagers.
Maybe older new writers mess up other things.
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People mess up both.
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story TELLING… a special talent! story SHOWING?
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Also a special talent.
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Question of balance. Shift from one to the other as the narrative requires, then check it back on the re-write and ask yourself…..’Does anyone really want to ready this bit?’
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Always ask that. Does anybody want to read this? It’s humbling.
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Yeh, particularly if you sit there alone and try and do an audio book version….Oooh that can be harsh, particularly when you are half way through a paragraph and you’re thinking…..
‘Whaaat!’
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I don’t know that I would say it is the MOST important aspect of storytelling. I personally find pacing to absolutely vital. Bad pacing will ruin a story that ticks all the other boxes. Knowing when to show vs when to tell does play into pacing. I definitely think new writers (and many veteran writers) struggle with pacing.
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Yeah, they do. Pacing is big.
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My editor said the same thing, “.. too much detail. The reader can figure it out.” I agree with storytelling, showing is always better than saying. If it is the Most important, I think there are other things just as important (i.e. character development, story pace, etc.) But I’m a novice still learning.
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Hemingway said we’re all apprentices in a craft that we never master. So you are in good company.
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Thank you.
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It is important to show rather than tell, Dan, and it is a learned skill.
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Yep.
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Holding my hands up, one of the most difficult lessons for me to learn, and I still haven’t finished learning by any means, is the difference between show and tell. Dan knows, he helps me a lot. I don’t know if it’s because I’m dyspraxic and my brain is hard-wired different, (very true please look it up) or if it’s just a very long, sharp learning curve. However, I am getting better. I do love descriptive prose, but that is my thing as a reader. Great one this week, Dan. 🙂
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Hold on, I’m looking up dyspraxic…
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Clumsy? That’s a disorder?
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Yep, it’s one of the symptoms of dyspraxia. 😦
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