Show Me How to Show

I have a new writing craft book to add to my growing pile of “favorites”: Janice Hardy’s Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It).

I realize I just made most writers shudder, wince, or look heavenward with the words, “show, don’t tell.” For me, this was one of the hardest concepts to grasp as a pre-published author, and I would argue it’s one that most of us struggle with, even after publication. No person or book or course adequately explained this concept to me in my early years pursuing the writing craft, especially because, for this literal brain of mine, I was like, “But I’m writing words. Which means I’m telling everything. I’m not drawing pictures or showing a movie. So, what do you mean I’m supposed to show you my character’s feelings or show you the sun in the sky?”

In the end, it was a fellow writer with ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) who helped me grasp what it meant to show something in a manuscript—but it took about six months for the concept to sink in. We were both submitting our manuscripts through ACFW’s critique loop at the time (before Tinsel in a Tangle was published), and she would patiently critique my chapters one sub at a time, highlighting my “telling” prose and giving examples of how to show them, instead. Finally, one glorious day, the light bulb clicked on for me, and I understood how and why I should, as Janice Hardy puts it in this book, “[u]se language and details to describe what a person physically and mentally does or feels, [not] explain what they did, thought, or felt” (emphasis mine).

It’s that process—showing how to show by way of examples and reasons behind the “why’s”—that Janice does so well throughout this book. In one chapter, she breaks down an entire telling paragraph, sentence by sentence, explaining why each sentence is considered telling. She then walks us through the process of changing and tweaking each sentence to better show the actions and characters. When she’s done, we have an emotional scene in which necessary information is relayed to the reader in such a way that we feel we’ve experienced it along with the main character, rather than listening to someone tell about it after the fact.

“Voice lets you get away with a lot. It turns whatever you’re writing into a character experiencing it. And showing is all about feeling like you’re there with the characters having the same experience.”

In case you’re wondering, however, no, you don’t always have to show. As writers, we intrinsically understand that we can’t show everything—our books would be 900+ page monsters. Instead, it’s our job as storytellers to decide when and how best to show in our manuscripts based on our writing style, genre, and the narrative distance we choose. Janice fully acknowledges that telling is required sometimes, and it’s up to the writer (with help and input from others further along the writing path, IMO) to decide where and when to do it.

“Don’t be afraid to tell when you have to. Just make sure that when you do, you’re telling in a way that serves the story and keeps the reader interested.”

“You don’t have to show if the told prose is working. Sometimes a tell says exactly what you want for the scene.”

Even if a sentence sounds fine with a told emotion or action, I’m often encouraging other writers to go through the process of reworking a “tell” into a “show.” They may later decide they prefer the tell in their manuscript, but I believe the exercise itself is what’s important. We can’t build muscles—writing muscles, included—if we don’t take the time and energy to exercise them.  😄

In conclusion, no writing-craft book can take the place of other writers critiquing our work—iron sharpens iron!—but this book definitely comes close. I wish I’d had this resource on hand over a decade ago, but I’m thankful I have it now to use as a refresher.

For more information, you can read more about this book and/or download a sample from Amazon. I do recommend buying a physical copy, however, rather than purchasing an ebook. There’s something about underlining sentences and dog-earing pages that help us soak up the content, and you can’t beat the price! 😊