ABSTRACT
Show don’t tell Advice often given to aspiring writers is ‘show don’t tell’. For me ‘showing’ means
putting the reader through an experience, and although this exists in the
imagination only, because the mind and body are linked, we respond physically and
emotionally to the thoughts that authors put into our heads. So, for instance, a
funny story works when it makes readers laugh. A scary story succeeds when the
reader feels frightened. For a writer to say ‘Jeff stood at the top of the steps and felt
frightened’ is not enough. How do we get the reader’s imagination to experience
Jeff’s fear? (Refer to Figure 7.) Well, the writer can:
Experiment with point-of-view. Imaginatively become the character. Be in his
situation. Ask yourself how you would feel to be standing there alone on that
dark misty night.
