SHOW vs. TELL

I went to the North Texas SCBWI Conference and, as always, heard a lot of great information and inspiring talks. Especially one by Jill Alexander on what VOICE isn't. But, just as VOICE is difficult for writers to understand, I believe the dreaded "Show don't Tell" is worse.

I don't want to call it a revelation, but this concept was hammered in my brain after seeing the movie, "Guilt Trip" with Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand.

As I watched the movie I kept thinking, That is my mother. Only, I didn't know how right I was until I saw my mother the following week.

TELLING IS . . . 

WHAT MOTHERS DO to get us to feel something…

• Grateful
• Guilt
• Happiness

“I did this and this and this for you, and you should be (feel)…”

Or

“Be careful or you will hurt yourself…”

AS A CHILD, I WANT TO figure out for myself how I feel about the circumstances I am in.

If I get hurt, then I get hurt. Let me do it by myself.


AUTHORS DO THIS WITH THEIR CHARACTERS…

1. Authors want to make sure the reader can make the connection. As a beginning author I didn't trust that the Reader would be able to figure it out. Just like our mothers don't want to trust us, authors want to make it obvious.

During one of my rewrites in my book, I had the sentence... “Why do I get myself all worked up, like Mom does?”

My book is titled Crazy Like Mom. I didn't need to add like Mom does because as the reader follows my character through her day, he/she will be able to make the comparisons by themselves.

2. Authors want the Reader to have certain emotions shared between the characters, so authors do this with backstory.

In a prior version I wrote this paragraph to (what I thought was show) describe how the main character feels about her relationship with her brother.

     "Jack is too busy to help the way he did last year—doing each problem with me to see who got it done first, then making sure I got the answer right. If I ask him, though, he’ll review my work to make sure it’s correct. I scribble out the problems, and spend what seems like forever working on them, and then set the homework aside for Jack to correct when he gets home."

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... That is TELLING or AKA Word Vomit. And the information in the paragraph was so yesterday. The reader wants to know what my character feeling now?

Can I sum up the previous 73-word paragraph into 26 words? You bet.

     "I decide to blow-off math. Algebra isn't one of my best subjects, and since no one in my family gives a crap about my mathematical future, why should I care."

AS A READER I WANT TO…

• Be in the moment with the main character. 
• I don’t want to feel what the author wants me to feel. I might feel what the m/c feels, but I want the freedom to disagree depending on my personal experiences. 
• I want to be in the situation instead of being forced to wear the situation as an overcoat.