Show, don't tell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the composition principle. For the Rush song, see Show Don't Tell (song).

Show, don't tell is a technique often employed in various kinds of texts to enable the reader to experience the story through action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the author's exposition, summarization, and description. The goal is not to drown the reader in heavy-handed adjectives, but rather to allow readers to interpret significant details in the text. The technique applies equally to nonfiction and all forms of fiction, including literature, speech, movie making, and playwriting.[1][2][3][4]

Nobel Prize–winning novelist Ernest Hemingway was a notable proponent of the show, don't tell style. His famed Iceberg Theory, also known as the "theory of omission", originates from his bullfighting treatise, Death in the Afternoon:


In a 2013 article, Chuck Palahniuk (author of the award-winning novel Fight Club) goes as far as recommending a ban of what he calls "thought verbs" ("Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires […]") favoring instead the use of "specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling."[5]

"Show, don't tell" should not be applied to all incidents in a story. According to James Scott Bell, "Sometimes a writer tells as a shortcut, to move quickly to the meaty part of the story or scene. Showing is essentially about making scenes vivid. If you try to do it constantly, the parts that are supposed to stand out won't, and your readers will get exhausted."[6] Showing requires more words; telling may cover a greater span of time more concisely.[7] A novel that contains only showing would be incredibly long; therefore, a narrative can contain some legitimate telling.

Scenes that are important to the story should be dramatized with showing, but sometimes what happens between scenes can be told so the story can make progress. According to Orson Scott Card and others, "showing" is so terribly time consuming that it is to be used only for dramatic scenes.[8] The objective is to find the right balance of telling versus showing, summarization versus action. Factors like rhythm, pace, and tone come into play.[9][10]

Creative literature (as opposed to technical writing or objective journalism) in general hinges on the artful use of a wide range of devices (such as inference, metaphor, understatement, the unreliable narrator, and ambiguity) that reward the careful reader's appreciation of subtext and extrapolation of what the author chooses to leave unsaid, untold, and/or unshown. The "dignity" Hemingway speaks of proposes a form of respect for the reader, who should be trusted to develop a feeling for the meaning behind the action without having the point painfully laid out for him.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Wells (1999). How To Write Non-Fiction Books. Writers' Bookshop. p. 65. ISBN 1902713028. 
  2. ^ Warren (2011). Show Don't Tell: A Guide to Purpose Driven Speech. Jerianne Warren. ISBN 0615498353. 
  3. ^ Mackendrick, Cronin, Scorsese (2005). On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director. Faber \& Faber. p. xxiii. ISBN 0571211259. 
  4. ^ Hatcher (2000). The Art and Craft of Playwriting. F+W Media. p. 43. ISBN 1884910467. 
  5. ^ Palahniuk, Chuck. "Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs". LitReactor. Retrieved 9 December 2013. 
  6. ^ Bell, James Scott (2003). "Exception to the Rule". Writer's Yearbook 2003 (F+W Publications): p. 20. 
  7. ^ Selgin, Peter (2007). By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers. Writer's Digest Books. p. 31. ISBN 1-58297-491-8. 
  8. ^ Card, Orson Scott. Character and Viewpoint. Writer's Digest Books. pp. 140–42. 
  9. ^ Browne, Renne (2004). Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (2nd ed.). Harper Resource. pp. 12–14. ISBN 0-06-054569-0. 
  10. ^ Kress, Nancy (March 2006). "Better Left Unsaid". Writer's Digest. p. 20.