See Evil, But Speak No Evil

"Show, don't tell" is a golden rule of storytelling regardless of format, and whether it is non-fiction or fiction. It boosts the immersion of your work and better for your readers to absorb because it's fun.

This is one case of easy on paper, but hard to follow. Because it really is.

Maybe you think that your readers won't understand what is happening, so you elaborate. Fine by me. Sometimes you gotta give context.

But too long and you will hear yawning beyond your computer or writing desk. By line 10, it's a snooze-fest. Your story is a guided river cruise instead of a rollercoaster. Spoon feeding is never fun for adventurous folk, and we all want an adventure for ourselves don't we?

Here's a solution to quell your reader's boredom.

Visualize your scene.

Imagine yourself as a witness while you write out your scene. Describe only what you saw. Here's what I mean.

This is a scene that tells.

"She frowns at her friend, who feels nervous, knowing that she is screwed. She slaps her."

Feels easy to read, right? But what if you up the immersion by showing? Let the action speaks for itself.

"Her lips curl down, brows furrowed as her eyes are locked on her friend. In return, her laugh is a single note, sweat trickles down her sideburns. Suddenly, she feels a sting on her left cheek as she abruptly faces her right. She turns back to her friend to see her palm swinging across her face. Another sting on the same spot."

Here's another example. This is telling.

"Lad tries to strike Loon, but instead finds himself being hugged in her arms. He weakly pushes her, wanting her off him, but she hugs him tighter until he breaks down crying as she comforts him."

And now, this is showing.

"Lad swipes Loon's hand away, but her arms are already wrapped around his shoulders. Lad puts pressure on her collarbone with his hand. Loon pushes his head onto her shoulder, rubbing and petting her hand on his scalp. He grits his teeth when his cheeks are moistened with fresh tears. Sobs escape his lips as his torso is squeezed in Loon's arms, hand still rubbing his hair as she plants her face on his cheek."

"I'm here," Loon whispers in his ear. "Shhh...cry all you want. I'm here..."

It really takes some practice to make the actions talk. One way you can do this is by typing out your scene, then read it. If you see any action that feels like a narration, you found the culprit.

When you must tell, you should give just enough context for your reader to get the gist. Worldbuilding in fiction is an example. It shouldn't really be read like a wiki. If I am worldbuilding, I only provide need-to-know basis, and nothing more. The rest can either be figured out by the reader or be later included as a present occurrence when I see fit.

I learned that from Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish author of the Witcher novels. I read that he just made up his world as he went along to fit to the story of his characters. In his own words, the setting is just a background, a "fairground canvas moved by a spinning wheel."

He didn't establish any maps, cultures, races, deep lore or any of that shtick. Pre-conceptualizing your own world was overkill to him. A total time waster. After all, his stories were about his heroes, not the world itself.

That's my Ted Talk for today. Hope you enjoy reading my first ever LinkedIn article. Stay safe folks, and happy writing!