Now let me 'tell' you something

[John Dean]

There is a debate that has been rumbling on in writing circles for years, namely the balance between ‘show’ and ‘tell’. But what does it mean? Well, this is telling:

It had been a difficult day for James. Just before noon, his boss had barged into his office and demanded to see the accounts.

That’s not bad as a piece of writing but much better, I would suggest, if you adopt show as in:

James tried to concentrate on his work and looked down at the papers strewn across the desk.

The door barged open. It was his boss.

‘Where are the bloody accounts?’ he said. He pointed to the wall clock. ‘I said twelve!’

See how much more life there is in the showing version? Certainly, it can often be best to resist the urge to explain. For example, emotions are best communicated by showing how the nerves manifest themselves. Rather than saying James was feeling nervous, how much better to say:

James could feel his heart pounding and his palms were clammy. He felt faint.

Let me say here, though, that this is no out-and-out rule. I sometimes choose to tell because I do not want every scene in a novel to feature action and dialogue. It can sometimes be effective for me as the narrator to tell the reader something like ‘The detectives questioned him for six hours without success’ rather than painstakingly taking the reader through the interview verbatim. By telling I can create a sense of time passing.

And sometimes it can be useful to have a character reflecting on something by telling the reader what happened and how the character feels about it ie

James sat and stared out of the window and thought back on the encounter. He had never seen his boss so angry and he wondered why. The more he thought about it, the signs had been there for weeks.

As with all writing, it is all about selecting the right approach for the right purpose and both show and tell have their place. And that does mean show as well as tell. Why I do say this? Because I read an article the other day in which the writer suggested that ‘tell’ is a gimmick that will soon pass. Don’t think so.