#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.02.09 — Do you subscribe to ‘show, don’t tell’?

[sfwrtr@eldritch.cafe]

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.02.09 — Do you subscribe to ‘show, don’t tell’? Why, or why not?

This is the difference between stating meaning and evoking meaning. Each have their place.

Word choice matters. The right word not only draws the reader into a story, it lets the author tailor specific meanings to make specific points. What I write in first draft sometimes feels like instructions to future-me, explanations of what is happening, noted and forgotten in order to prevent halting composition or breaking my fugue. Meta. When there is no reference or context, I do think it is all right to tell the reader what is going on, to explain, to prevent misconception, to force the author's meaning down the reader's throats, hopefully courteously, especially when dealing with internal convolutions of a character's (or the narrator's) mind.

Mostly, however, I find myself reading these explanations of mine and often replacing to-be constructions with active verbs like ran or shove, removing attributive-sense constructions like he-saw/heard/felt, adding description through action, and bringing in the senses, all five in a paragraph or passage if possible. Sentences get recast, rewritten. Thus not, "He saw a rose," but, "He inhaled through his nose, turned, and reached for a velvety red petal, but, always clumsy, scratched his thumb."

Do you see what I did?

Such things effect pacing. It's a trade off. Making experience concrete adds weight to the narrative, adds words, and can extend the reading time going from point A to point B. The above example is 19 words instead of 5, but I never simply stated it was a rose.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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