It's a huge debate on the writing forums I frequent - the whole show don't tell thing. Well, Writer's Digest has a great article this month called, 'Tried & True, Timeless Novel Advice'. Here's Fred East's quote from June 1944:
"If you tell the reader that Bull Beezley is a brutal-faced, loose-lipped bully with snake's blood in his veins, the reader's reaction may be, 'Oh, yeah!' But if you show the reader Bull Beezley raking the bloodied flanks of his weary, sweat-encrusted pony, and flogging the tottering, red-eyed animal with a quirt, or have him booting in the protruding ribs of a starved mongrel and boy, the reader believes!"
That about sums up any other blog I could possibly do on this subject. What are your thoughts on show vs. tell? Have you found such a statement to make this clearer?
Happy Monday, all.
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