One of the biggest challenges in writing my memoir was mastering the principle that storytellers use: "showing" the scene versus "telling" the scene.
It’s a simple concept but not one generally embraced by practiced business writers. If you're a writer outside of the creative realm, you might find this technique challenging. I write a lot for business and try to show rather than tell, but I am not always successful. Telling is more efficient for me just stick to the facts, the statistics, the sequence of events, and what you want people to get out of what you are telling them! Showing requires that you bring people into the scene with you.
When I write normally, I ask my reviewers, critics, or anyone, what did the piece make you think, if anything? What did it make you feel, if anything? What does it make you compelled to do, if anything? This small framework forces me to think about what I’d like them to think, feel, and do, and orients my writing. I at least want to have a point of view on these questions. I suppose this framework tilts me more as a writer toward showing than the average person who writes, but I need to grow in this area.
When you are showing vs. telling, you aim to be multidimensional in describing the scene. This is my non-writing lingo multidimensional means you don’t just walk up to the door and knock on it. Instead, describe the path leading up to the door: was it overgrown with grass? What color was the house? How large was the screen door? Did it squeak when you opened it? What was going on with you? Were you perspiring? "I was dripping with sweat at the anticipation of knocking on the door." As a reader, we can see that image of you. What emotions were you feeling? Don’t just tell me; show me. "As I knocked on the door, I trembled, not sure of what was on the other side." The trembling indicates nervousness let the reader infer that.
This was hard for me because, like most writers, I don’t typically write with this level of detail. My editor said to me, "more showing, less telling." Bring people into the scene with you. Lean on the five senses. The five senses are the main tools humans use to perceive the world: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. We see with our eyes, we smell with our noses, we listen with our ears, we taste with our tongue, and we touch with our skin.
Here are three tips that I found helpful:
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Start observing in movies and books you read when there is showing vs. telling. This will help you get a sense of when it is appropriate to do either. Simple examples using emotions:
- Telling: Rebecca was very sad about losing her dog.
- Showing: Rebecca's shoulders slumped, and she stared at the empty dog bed, eyes welling up, as memories of her loyal companion flooded back.
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Practice providing more vivid details and actions. Allow your readers to experience the story through their senses, emotions, and imagination, rather than just being told what happens.
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Just write. Once you write, go back through and ask yourself if that scene could be more dynamic if you provided more details this is not always the case.
I hope this helps. I also hope I have achieved more showing vs. telling, even in a limited way, with my memoir, Twice Over a Man: A Fierce Memoir of an Orphan Boy Who Doggedly Determined a Finer Life.
You too have a book in you.
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