Show Don't Tell - Linden Gross

“Show don’t tell” rolls off the tongue so easily. Showing what happens in your book rather than talking about it, however, just isn’t as simple as it sounds. It takes a while to make the shift and start experiencing your book in a way that allows you to share those visceral experiences with your readers.

As a result, “show don’t tell” is a frequent topic of discussion during writing coach sessions.

Most people get the concept in spurts. In the midst of a bland stew of expository writing, they’ll throw in a dash of vivid story showing, as I call it, that transforms the scene into a memorably delicious morsel.

For Jeff Swaney, who is writing a memoir in the vein of gonzo journalism that provides a rambling account of a life of adventures experienced outside the box, that moment hit when he wrote about waking up in a field that it turns out he was sharing with a bull. His children, ages 7 and 10, love this story. Weeks after Jeff read the scene to them, they could still recite every single detail, from Jeff’s discovering the bull midway through his morning constitutional to his refusal to help his friend rescue their soggy tent once he had safely made it over the fence.

Dad having a close call is always going to register, but it won’t stick unless the story comes alive with action, dialogue and detail. That’s true for readers as well, which is why the show-don’t-tell rule is so critical. Like anything else, however, that takes practice.

Fast forward. Over the last few months, Jeff continued to charge through the rough draft of his memoir until Covid-19 stalled him. Something about handling two kids as a single dad when you’re suddenly having to be everything from teacher to entertainment proved a challenge.

Luckily, that didn’t stop Jeff from thinking about his book. And it didn’t dull his sense of humor. Three to four weeks into the stay-at-home order, Jeff sent me an email with the picture at the top of this post. The subject line read: