Show, Don’t Tell in Novel Writing

The principle of "show, don't tell" is one of the most famous techniques in novel-writing. You may already have a good understanding of it, but this brief discussion is designed to help you develop and understand it in your writing. Others may have heard the phrase without really ever having it explained, but it is one of the most important “rules” in novel-writing. And like all rules, sometimes you should break it.

“Show, don’t tell” distinguishes between “showing” the story through action, dialogue, and description, versus “telling” it through straightforward exposition of facts. (The word “exposition” is very commonly used in publishing for “telling.”) Usually, you will hear that you should show, not tell. You may have heard criticism of your own work as telling not showing.

In fact, both showing and telling have their place in storytelling, and mastering their balance is what you should aim for .

What is "Show" in Novel Writing?

It is about allowing readers to experience the story through dialogue, action, thoughts, and senses rather than through the telling of facts or information.

It is about creating a vivid, immersive experience for the reader. It engages the reader’s imagination and emotions, allowing them to infer character traits, emotions, and themes from action and dialogue. The reason it is generally recommended is it is usually more engaging for the reader, who felt less “talked to,” experiencing the world for themselves and piecing together information and drawing their own conclusions.

What is "Tell" in Novel Writing?

It involves delivering information directly to the reader through exposition, a form of factual summary and explanations in a straightforward “told” manner. It conveys information quickly and efficiently, without delving into the intricacies of showing.

It can be a useful tool for conveying necessary information without slowing down the narrative. It’s effective for summarizing events, providing background or clarifying complexity. Sometimes something that would take ten pages of dialogue (which might be tedious for a reader to wade through) could be summarised in a paragraph of exposition. The key is to use it strategically when showing would take too long, for when there is a lot of information that you need to get out quickly.

For example, in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the novelist brilliantly uses exposition the outline the complex alternate American society of Gilead, with its endless rules, the historical events that led to its creation, and the link between environmental breakdown and its misogyny. In Dune by Frank Herbert, the novelist uses exposition to explain the complex political and ecological systems of the desert planet on which the action takes place. He mixed extended exposition into dialogue, internal monologues, and even a series of appendices, to help readers understand the story’s intricate world.

For those interested in unreliable narration, especially in first person, this can be a wonderful device, allowing the narrator to plant lies or delusions into the narrative, by just telling the reader what they want them to hear.

If a scene requires a deep emotional connection, showing might be more effective. If you need to move the plot forward quickly or provide necessary background, telling can be useful. Showing tends to slow down the narrative but make it much richer and more resonant.

Telling speeds up the narrative by summarizing information but it is harder to effect an emotional connection with the reader. In a thriller, you might use telling to quickly convey a scene’s key points or info-dump, but in a literary novel, you might linger on a character’s emotional or psychological journey or on the slow, beautiful evocation of setting or time through showing.

What Is An Info Dump?

An "info dump" is a term used in writing to describe a large block of information that is delivered all at once in prose. It is an often intense form of telling even when it is used in what appeared to be showing, e.g. in dialogue when two characters are talking during an action scene, and one character reveals to the other the history of the cause they are fighting for, or their own mysterious background, etc. Info-dumping most usually involves backstory or other forms of exposition, but can include world-building shorthand, character information, or explanations of complex concepts.

It often happens early in novels to get readers up to speed as soon as possible with a complex background to the narrative, with a range of characters or some complicated dilemma that the reader needs to understand.

Of course, as we know telling is important as a device, but an info-dump risks halting the narrative flow and can be obviously too expositional to the reader. When it is used about your work, you might infer it as meaning “too much telling.” There is absolutely a role for it, but if you use it, do it as quickly and subtly as possible. Readers are, consciously or unconsciously, quite alert to its overuse.

How to Decide When to Show and When to Tell

For pivotal moments of character arcs or major plot points, showing is often more effective because of its emotional resonance and ability to deepen the narrative. If a scene requires deep emotional engagement, showing is probably the way to go.

If the goal is to convey information clearly and concisely, telling might be the better choice. If you need to pick up the pace, telling or switching between telling and showing (as described in Dune above) will be helpful.

But again, be careful: too much telling can become tedious to read, and people will say your writing is “expositional.”

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