When to Show And When to Tell

Big scenes and small details

Show, don’t tell.

One of the rules of writing I’m sure everyone has heard way too many times. It makes sense. Your reader wants to see what’s going on in your story. They don’t want to be told what’s happening.

But there are actually times where telling is better than showing. Not every detail makes it into a story’s final cut. Some things are left out, and for good reason.

But how do you know where to show and where to tell? How do you know when things should be described and when they should be summarized? Why is telling a good thing on occasion? What’s the benefit?

Allow me to explain.

Purpose

To understand where telling is better than showing, we must first understand why.

We show things to the reader that are emotionally significant. Stories are emotion. The reader comes to feel something, whether that’s excited, scared, inspired, or sad. They’re always there for some kind of emotion. As authors, it’s our job to deliver that emotion through prose.

When something is essential to the emotion of a story—a fight, a breakup, a trial—the reader must see that. They need the details. Scenes significant to the main character are significant to the reader. We want to feel what he feels and see what he sees. We want to experience the story through his eyes. This is where you show. If you don’t show, your reader won’t feel. If your readers don’t feel, they don’t care.

If that’s the case, what would be the purpose of telling instead of showing?

When something is not emotionally significant, that’s when you tell the reader what’s happening. You summarize these events. Put it in a few sentences instead of paragraph after paragraph. It’s not important to the reader because it won’t make them feel anything. It’s not important to the character because it has no emotional significance to him.

But these small moments do often have to be in the story somehow, whether it’s the character going on vacation, having a restful weekend, or even going on a morning stroll. The actions of the character aren’t significant even if his internal conflict is.

How do you summarize while keeping reader interest?

A very good question, my friend. Let me show you through example and explain what I did.

Henry couldn’t see through the fog to the water under the bridge, but he could hear the gurgling of the creek over the sound of his SUV, letting him know it was still there, even after the world had shattered. Everything else seemed the same, too, on the way to California. Everyone’s world kept turning. But not Henry’s.

See how I summarized Henry’s road trip to California? I began by setting the scene with a bridge covered in fog, using it as a symbol to represent Henry’s state of mind. How did you feel after that short description of the bridge?

The mention of the SUV let you know Henry was driving. But where’s he driving to? That’s where the mention of California comes in. The road trip, though it probably took a long time, wasn’t emotionally significant to Henry’s story. Therefore, it was summarized.

When summarizing a moment in your story, it’s vital to focus on something to represent your character’s state of mind. A bridge in fog. The rays of sunshine cascading from the green trees. The open book sitting on the coffee table, the end of which is still a mystery. Whatever one thing you use, it must reflect your character’s mood and state of mind. It must be a symbol of how they’re thinking or feeling. It can be a concrete symbol, or it can be something a little more abstract. In my example, I chose a bridge covered in fog to symbolize Henry crossing over to a new phase of his life, but he can’t see what’s coming next.

Make sure to keep all the important details in your summary. If your summary lacks vital information, your reader will be lost. This is why I mentioned the SUV to show that Henry is driving and briefly mentioned that he was on his way to California, which will help to smoothly transition into a scene where he arrives in California.

If I hadn’t mentioned the SUV, you might wonder how he got to California. If I hadn’t mentioned California, you might wonder where Henry was driving to. What would be the significance of one without the other? Make sure the details work together to say what you want to say.

But summaries and transitions can’t be thrown onto a story without thought. You have to connect them some way, or they’ll feel jerky or sudden. The best way to connect summaries and scene transitions is through feeling. In this case, it’s Henry feeling sad and mournful. I never mentioned his brother’s passing in the summary, but you can probably tell that Henry is going through a rough patch in his life.

How to tell when to show and when to tell

I went over this briefly in the beginning, but I’ll go into a little more detail here.

This is a lot easier to figure out as you go. You should show when there’s something emotionally significant going on, and tell when something trivial is happening. For instance, a breakup might be described and shown in detail in a romance story where it’s a moment that’s important for the character, but it might be summarized in a story where the main character is focused on becoming a better athlete. For instance, the breakup scene in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is shown because the relationship between Gwen and Peter is a huge part of Peter’s story. But the breakup between Daniel and Allie is briefly mentioned in The Karate Kid 2 once and never brought up again. That’s because, while the relationship was important to the first film, it has no influence on the second.

Make sure you understand the core conflict of your story to know when to show and when to tell. Then determine whether a scene contributes to that core conflict. It if does, show it. If it doesn’t, tell it. It takes some practice, but you’ll get the hang of it as you go.

What do you think? Is it okay to summarize certain scenes? Should they be shown instead? Or maybe you think they should be removed from the story entirely. Let me know in the comments! I love talking with you guys.