What role does telling play in setting up a scene in writing?

Telling informs the reader of events that are happening, the actions of the characters in the scene and the atmosphere of the whole scene. The reader will know if the characters are angry, excited or scared which brings the reader into the story.

When using telling to set up a scene in writing, you should use it to convey the emotional context. This is so that the audience can understand the emotions that you are trying to portray. You should write clearly what a character is feeling. For example; "Sarah's tears poured down when she heard about the passing of her father." You could also just state the emotion of a character. For example; "Sarah was so sad when she heard that her father had passed away."

Telling is like a swift emotional shortcut - it gets readers quickly aligned with a character's feelings, like a GPS setting the tone for the scene ahead ??!

Showing is definitely the preference, writer advice sites will insist on ‘show don’t tell’ as the cardinal rule. But telling has its place. In matters of worldbuilding, especially, telling is necessary. You can show all you want, but there will always be basic things that that your reader will need to know, that characters already do. To try and shoehorn information into being ‘shown’ often results in painful contrivances, passages in which characters painstakingly purchase things, so we might ‘see’ the financial system, or explain maps or royal family trees in minute detail, to other characters who should already know these things. In instances like this telling isn’t just simpler, it’s kinder! Your goal is clarity. Break the rule!

With telling, the audience would feel that it is more engaging. This is because they would be clear about what is going on in a scene. The audience would know what they are supposed to be feeling when they are seeing or reading the scene. This is because the telling part helps them to do so. With telling, your audience would also feel as if they are not being left out. This is because they would feel as if they are being told what they need to know about the scene.

Using telling helps you to get an artful balance. This is because audience would find it boring if it is just all action or telling. You need to know when you should use telling. This is because too much telling would make a scene boring to the audience. You must also remember to include telling in certain important scenes. This is because the audience might not be able to understand just through actions.