How to Write Fiction that Feels Real

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Showing versus Telling

A

As his mother switched off the light and left the room, Michael tensed. He huddled under the covers, gripped the sheets, and held his breath as the wind brushed past the curtain.

B

Michael was terribly afraid of the dark.

Which is an example of "showing"?

1. As his mother switched off the light and left the room...
2. Michael was terribly afraid of the dark.

01:04

Telling is summarizing, showing is ...

1. simplifying
2. dramatizing
3. exaggerating
4. lying

Example of telling: 

Lois was a horribly messy person.

Example of showing:

 Hey, there's my sandwich!' Lois exclaimed triumphantly, spying yesterday's meatball sub protruding from the heap of dirty laundry on the backseat of her car.

What if, instead of messy, Lois were compulsively neat? 

Think about how you could show that. 

What does a compulsively neat person do? 

Write one sentence in which you show that Lois is compulsively neat.

Example of telling

It was a hot day. 

Example of showing: 

 Her shirt stuck to the small of her back, and sweat rolled down her thighs as she trudged across the parched grass to the porch, where a collie panted in the thin shadow offered by the rocking chair. 

Write one sentence in which you show a cold day.

They were angry.

Choose a prompt: 

https:

Use this prompt to write for ten minutes. Show instead of tell!