Show, don’t tell is one of the best-known pieces of writing advice, and for good reason. Rather than simply telling readers that a character is frightened, a house is neglected or a relationship is strained, showing allows them to discover this through actions, dialogue, sensory details and carefully chosen images. This draws readers into the scene and gives them the pleasure of interpreting what is happening for themselves. I have compiled some useful articles and podcasts that discuss showing and telling.
The Golden Rule
Show, Don’t Tell: Tips and Examples of The Golden Rule
Showing allows readers to experience a story through action, dialogue and sensory detail instead of simply being given information. This article offers practical guidance on creating vivid settings, revealing character through speech and behaviour, and keeping descriptions connected to movement. Examples from novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Gone Girl demonstrate the technique in action, while the article also reminds writers that telling remains useful for controlling pace and moving quickly through less important moments.
Show Don’t Tell Writing: Examples & Tips
This article uses side-by-side examples to show how a straightforward statement can be transformed into a more involving scene. It encourages writers to replace emotional labels with physical reactions, choose strong and specific verbs, use body language and sensory details, and remove filter phrases such as “I saw” or “she noticed.” Most importantly, it stresses that writers do not need to show everything: meaningful and emotional moments deserve to be dramatised, while telling can bridge the gaps and keep the story moving.
A Practical Guide
A Practical Guide on How to Show Not Tell in Writing – Barker Books Publishing
This detailed guide encourages writers to make scenes feel real by drawing on sound, touch, temperature, smell and taste, as well as visual description. It shows how actions, body language, strong verbs and distinctive mannerisms can reveal a character’s feelings and personality without directly naming them. The article also explores the importance of subtext, individual character voices and action beats in dialogue, giving writers plenty of useful techniques for revising flat or overly explanatory passages.
Show, Don’t Tell: Examples
Show Don’t Tell: Showing vs Telling in Writing (With Examples)
ProWritingAid explains the difference between giving readers a conclusion and providing clues that allow them to reach that conclusion themselves. Alongside examples from fiction and memoir, it suggests using the “camera test”: ask whether a camera could capture the actions and details on the page, then add sensory information where necessary. It also offers a reassuring approach to drafting too saying that writers can tell the story plainly at first and strengthen important moments during revision. The article also explains when summary is the better choice for transitions, routine actions or repeated events.
Show, Don’t Tell: The Secret to Great Writing with Show and Tell Examples
This article presents specificity as the simplest route towards more vivid and emotionally engaging writing. It encourages writers to question vague statements and replace them with particular people, places, gestures, dialogue and sensory details. At the same time, it acknowledges that greater specificity usually means greater length, so writers should reserve fuller showing for pivotal scenes, conflict and important conversations, while using telling to pass quickly over background information and quieter stretches of time. It also shares a short writing exercise that invites writers to practise making a general prompt more specific.
Podcasts on Show, Don’t Tell
#82: Show, Don’t Tell: What This Advice Really Means
Savannah Gilbo looks beyond the familiar rule and explains how a character’s emotional reactions can be conveyed through thoughts, physical responses and meaningful actions. It is a particularly helpful episode for writers who want readers to feel more closely connected to their characters.
3 Tips for Improving Show, Don’t Tell – Helping Writers Become Authors
K. M. Weiland explains the difference between dramatising an experience and summarising it. She explores how writers can avoid unnecessarily naming emotions, senses and context while also acknowledging that telling has an important place in a well-paced story.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-32-a-formula-for-showing-and-clear-and-spare-writing
This episode provides a straightforward formula for deciding when to show and when to tell. It also discusses how to write clearly and economically, making it especially useful for writers who worry that showing will make their prose too long or overloaded with detail.
Conclusion
Learning to show rather than tell is not about filling every paragraph with elaborate description. It is about choosing specific, meaningful details that allow readers to see, hear and feel a moment alongside the characters. Showing works especially well in scenes of emotion, conflict or change, while telling can provide background, link scenes and control the pace. By finding a balance between the two, you can create writing that feels vivid and immediate without becoming slow or overloaded. I hope you have found this week’s column useful. As always, please get in touch if there are any topics you would like me to cover.
(c) Lucy O’Callaghan
Instagram: lucy.ocallaghan.31.
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