TLDR;
This video explains the writing advice "show, don't tell," clarifying that telling isn't inherently bad but should be balanced with showing to create a more immersive and emotionally resonant experience for the reader. It explores the origins of the advice, rooted in 19th and 20th-century realism, and provides six guiding principles for stronger showing: using evidence, replacing abstract language with concrete details, incorporating sensory details, avoiding over-reliance on body language, using dialogue effectively, and filtering observations through the narrative voice. The video emphasizes that showing involves specificity, action, dialogue, sensory details, internal thought, and narrative voice to eliminate the author as the middleman and allow the reader to experience the story firsthand.
- Telling summarizes, while showing dramatizes.
- Good writing invites the reader to visualize the scene and experience the emotions themselves rather than being told how to feel.
- The key to making your audience care in fiction is to imply your meaning rather than always pointing it out.
Introduction: The Pitfalls of "Telling" [0:04]
The video starts by illustrating a passage that relies too much on "telling" rather than "showing," which fails to create a vivid picture or evoke emotions in the reader. The author points out that the passage states the girl is scared and the noises are frightening without providing enough evidence to support these claims. The core issue with over-telling is that it summarizes rather than dramatizes, preventing the reader from fully experiencing the story.
The Nuances of Telling vs. Showing [0:59]
The video clarifies that telling is not inherently bad and that all novels are a blend of telling and showing. Telling is useful for quickly conveying the passage of time or presenting important facts without belaboring the point. The author uses an example from "The Secret Garden" to illustrate how telling can be effective when immediately supported by visual proof and details. The key is to provide enough details or a strong narrative voice to make the reader feel something, inviting them to visualize the scene and experience the emotions themselves.
The Audience's Role in Storytelling [2:21]
Drawing from Andrew Stanton's TED Talk, the video emphasizes the importance of making the audience work for their meal by implying meaning rather than explicitly stating it. The opening of Wall-E is cited as an example of storytelling without dialogue, which engages the audience by making them piece things together. Readers enjoy the process of discovery and solving puzzles, so it's crucial to imply meaning rather than always pointing it out.
Historical Context of "Show, Don't Tell" [3:53]
The video explores the origins of the "show, don't tell" mantra, tracing it back to the rise of realism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Realism aimed to tell the stories of ordinary people with complete honesty, leading to techniques that impersonalize the narrator and dramatize the action. Literary critic Percy Lubbock popularized the idea of "showing vs. telling" in his 1921 book "The Craft of Fiction," advocating for the novelist to exhibit the story in a way that it tells itself. The intention behind this advice is to turn the author into an invisible narrator and avoid breaking the reader's immersion in the story.
Six Guiding Principles for Stronger Showing [5:50]
The video presents six guiding principles for stronger showing, focusing on moments involving emotions, opinions, or sensations.
Principle 1: Use Evidence to Support Your Claims [5:54]
The first principle emphasizes the importance of providing evidence to support claims or opinions made by the narrator or characters. The reader needs the same evidence the character uses when it comes to assumptions or opinions. Chuck Palahniuk advises against using "thought" verbs and suggests "unpacking" scenes to allow the reader to feel and think what the characters are feeling and thinking. Instead of stating that a character knows something, present the details that allow the reader to know it themselves.
Principle 2: Replace the Abstract with the Concrete [7:20]
The second principle advises replacing abstract concepts with concrete details, particularly when describing a character’s feelings. Instead of stating the character is happy, show actions that allow the reader to infer the emotion. Also, be wary of descriptions that use opinion-related adjectives and replace them with details that allow the reader to interpret the atmosphere on their own. A useful trick is to ask if a camera can see the detail, focusing on visuals combined with other senses.
Principle 3: Substitute Vague Descriptions with Specific Sensory Details [10:09]
The third principle highlights the importance of specificity and unique sensory details to make feelings and scenes jump off the page. The author uses an example of describing a market scene, illustrating how adding specific sensory details like spicy cinnamon, rich coffee, silken tassels, and golden saffron creates a more immersive experience. The video advises going beyond the obvious and expected details, suggesting that if an emotional scene feels cliché, try changing the setting or the way the characters describe their emotions.
Principle 4: Avoid Relying Too Much on Body Language [12:09]
The fourth principle cautions against over-relying on body language to imply a character’s emotions. While body language can be good emotional shorthand, it rarely evokes an emotional response from the reader. The video suggests showing emotions through actions and thoughts rather than bodily sensations alone, focusing on the impetus for the emotion. By giving a real-time account of the character’s thought process and their interactions with the setting, the author can show emotional nuance better than body language.
Principle 5: Show Emotion Through Dialogue [15:32]
The fifth principle emphasizes the power of dialogue in proving a character’s feelings or personality to the reader. Instead of stating a character's emotion, the dialogue should convey the tone and volume. The video warns against using adverbs, as they tell rather than show, and advises against "telegraphing" a character’s intentions in a conversation. The author suggests pretending to write a play or screenplay to focus on conveying emotion through dialogue alone, citing Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" as an example of snappy dialogue that carries the emotions of the scene.
Principle 6: Filter Observations Through the Narrative Voice [17:50]
The sixth principle focuses on filtering observations through the narrative point of view, giving details that allow the reader to feel more connected to the character through what they’re experiencing. This can be achieved through phrasing straightforward statements in a unique way. The video provides examples of replacing "telling" statements with "showing" statements that offer more flavor and character. It also emphasizes filtering world-building and exposition through the point-of-view character’s perspective, avoiding "As You Know, Bob" situations where one character explains something that another character already knows.
Balancing Telling and Showing [21:50]
The video concludes by reiterating that the true purpose behind the advice "show, don’t tell" is not to assert that all "telling" is bad writing. Telling is often necessary to bridge different scenes, and the amount of telling you use can depend on the genre. The author provides a cheat sheet of places where you might consider telling or blending telling and showing, as well as places where you’re usually better off showing. Showing means eliminating the author as the middleman and letting the reader live the story firsthand through specificity, action, dialogue, sensory details, internal thought, and narrative voice.
