Page 3 of 3
Does this mean you should never tell? Of course not. Sometimes you have information that simply must be conveyed by telling. You need to get your characters from Point A to Point B. Your characters do think, after all. You’re going to want to describe their psychological state. You might need to explain a bit of history or world-building here and there. And sometimes you just need to tell us that the moon was shining and get on with it.
How do you do it?
The keys to effective telling are:
• Integrate it into the scene as much as possible. Make it relevant to something that is happening in the moment. Then it helps to move the plot forward.
• Add tension: Make the information something that causes problems for the characters. Show their reaction. This engages the reader. If the information matters to the characters, it will matter to the reader.
• Write it in such a way that it conveys something about a character’s personality. Then it adds to character development.
• Keep it brief—a sentence or two maximum.
• Break it up. Don’t stick all your telling in one spot. Sprinkle information throughout a scene. Only tell readers the minimum of what they need to know at any given moment.
The keys to effective telling are:
• Integrate it into the scene as much as possible. Make it relevant to something that is happening in the moment. Then it helps to move the plot forward.
• Add tension: Make the information something that causes problems for the characters. Show their reaction. This engages the reader. If the information matters to the characters, it will matter to the reader.
• Write it in such a way that it conveys something about a character’s personality. Then it adds to character development.
• Keep it brief—a sentence or two maximum.
• Break it up. Don’t stick all your telling in one spot. Sprinkle information throughout a scene. Only tell readers the minimum of what they need to know at any given moment.
I haven’t come across any hard and fast breakdown of how much of a novel should be shown and how much told. But 90/10 is the rule I try to follow in my own work. Show, don’t tell, and your readers will skip Netflix and stay up late reading your novel instead.
Michelle Barker is the author of The House of One Thousand Eyes, which was named a Kirkus Best Book of 2018 and has won numerous awards, including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Her upcoming novel, My Long List of Impossible Things, will be out in the spring of 2020. Michelle holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and works as a senior editor at the Darling Axe. She is represented by Westwood Creative Artists.
