Stay Consistent with Show vs. Tell

A lot of writers wonder how much is too much, or if they're wrecking the pacing by showing when they should just say something directly.

Don't try to fix everything at once. Start small: pick one passage or strategy to work on. If you try to overhaul an entire draft with every concern being equal, you'll get overwhelmed and work at cross-purposes.

Before working on your own writing, try this practice exercise from a former teacher: describe a winter park without ever mentioning it's winter or cold. That's challenging, but the mental gymnastics push you toward better verb choices, noun choices, and figurative language—which is exactly what show don't tell really means.

You can also pick an emotion — anger, fear, excitement — and write a paragraph conveying it without naming the emotion. Give it to someone else to read and see if they can identify what you were going for. If they can, you've done well. If not, ask what led them astray and try again.

Here's a key point: showing doesn't mean increasing verbiage or making things wordier. It's doing it in a more engaging way that helps readers feel they're experiencing the story. Instead of "Tim was angry," try "Tim slammed his coffee mug down so hard the coffee spilled all over his desk." That's anger without saying so, and it gives readers a picture.

Try using sensory details — sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. Describe something using all five senses, then pick the one or two that resonate most. You can also give every underlying emotion or tension a physical manifestation. Embarrassed people sweat or fidget. Confident people walk with shoulders back and spine straight.

The reader doesn't want to be told what to think. Your anger doesn't look like my anger. But I do care about a coffee mug slamming down and spilling everywhere, something that invites me in and lets me use my own brain, which we all want to do when reading (even when we're reading to relax!)

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