This week I looked into the adage of ‘show don’t tell’ in the context of storytelling. ‘Show don’t tell’ encourages writers to boldly express (and split their infinitives) by combining action, tone, sense, and thought in opaque fashion rather than having them separated. When handled appropriately, this creates a better experience for the reader through an emphasis of incorporating emotion and the sensory into scenes and narration. The idea behind it is to limit unimaginative narration or text.
Consider the line:
“He sat in the interview chair, he was anxious.”
As tacit as this example is, it’s quite lifeless as we’re only telling what’s happening. Compare it with something like:
“The rhythmic thud of his fingers rapping across the desk accompanied his restless knees; a clicking clock in the corner pierced through the silence to stab at his ears. He shuffled about but could find no comfort, hard, rigid wood of the press room seat dug into the back of his ribs and reminded him of the grueling schooldays of his youth; days where he’d keep his head down and hope not to be picked out for a question. For the next fifteen minutes, he’d live this nightmare all over again…”
Here, the feeling of the character is shown to the reader, instead of simply writing ‘he is anxious’, actions and thoughts are used to prove he is anxious – the rapping on the desk, restless knees, the discomfort.
Of course, it’s impossible to do away with telling altogether; there are certain mundane events within any story that aren’t as important as the crucial scenes but are needed to advance the plot. Creating an appropriate balance between showing and telling is the key.
“Make the ‘telling’ as brief and crisp as possible, without being too obvious.”
– Mark Swan, Writer, Playwright
“…Showing is essentially about making scenes vivid. If you try to do it constantly, the parts that are supposed to stand out won’t, and your readers will get exhausted.”
– James Scott Bell, Writer
For a great article that explores this topic further, I can recommend https://selfpublishing.com/show-dont-tell/
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Giuseppe Gillespie Writing 
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