The Surprising Truth About Showing vs. Telling

“Show, don’t tell.” This motto rings through the ears of all writers from the moment they pick up a pencil or open a document.

Although this principle is incredibly useful, it doesn’t apply to every situation. If your characters exchange pleasantries, take an uneventful trip, or recap events that readers have already seen, it’s better to simply tell the audience that it happened rather than describing it in detail.

When you purposely use telling to skip over unimportant events, the passage is known as summary.

What Is Summary?

A passage of summary tells the audience what happened:

The Johnsons drove from Oregon to Colorado the next day.
I went to the store and bought balloons, gift wrap, and streamers.
Victor told Sarah what had happened at the council meeting.

These examples imply time passing and conversations happening without presenting a play-by-play of the situation. If nothing significant happens during the Johnsons’ trip, we don’t need to clutter the story with details of their rest stops and on-the-road meals.

By contrast, an entire novel in summary style would be boring. If the Johnsons’ road trip is important to the story, you’d want to depict their trip with scenes of action, description, and dialogue.

The key to “show, don’t tell” is knowing when to show and when to tell.

What Should We Summarize?

1. Mundane actions

Too many ordinary actions can slow the pace and bore readers.

Suppose your character walks out to the mailbox to mail a letter. In most cases, you don’t need to describe him unlocking the door, strolling down the driveway, sliding the letter inside, and lifting the mailbox flag. Instead, you can condense these mundane actions into a single sentence: Thomas walked to the mailbox and slid the letter inside.

2. Unimportant conversations

You can also use summary to skip recitations of previous events. Suppose the sleuth in your mystery novel explains an important clue to another character. If the readers already saw the sleuth find the clue, you can summarize the ensuing conversation: Detective Roberts told the chief of police about the fingerprints on the house key.

When you summarize unnecessary conversations, you can spend more time on information that both readers and characters want to know.

3. Unnecessary scenes

Sometimes, you’ll have to mention that a character performed a certain action or traveled somewhere without giving in-depth detail: Ceci visited the herbalist in the town square, where she picked up mint, sage, and thyme for tea. We don’t need to watch her wander through the market stalls, count her coins, exchange greetings with the shopkeepers, and so forth.

How to Make Summary Interesting

1. Add enough detail to imply that the scene actually happened.

If your character engages in small talk, you can summarize it:

For half an hour, Paul and I discuss our jobs, families, and favorite podcasts. Finally, I set my fork on the table. “Have you thought about our next step with the time machine?”

The underlined sentence provides a few details about the characters’ small talk without boring readers with unnecessary conversation.

2. Use character voice.

An engaging character voice can also enliven summary:

We stayed in a hotel room the size of a cardboard box. The beds were lumpy, the breakfast tasted like rubber, and the paper-thin walls barely blocked out conversations from other rooms. If I could give the hotel zero stars, I would.

Instead of presenting a full scene in the hotel room, this excerpt summarizes the unpleasant stay while focusing on the main character’s emotions and voice.

3. Use the summary to show rather than tell.

Even when you tell readers what happened, you can still choose details that show what you want to communicate. For example, instead of saying, “Ivan struggled to train with his superpower of flight,” you could write:

For an entire month, Ivan could hardly rise a foot above the ground. But once he got the hang of it, he overcompensated and catapulted wildly all over the room.

Even though this paragraph is summary, the details show rather than tell that Ivan had difficulty controlling his superpower.

When Telling Is Better than Showing

Although applying “show, don’t tell” will immensely improve your stories, some circumstances call for summary—telling rather than showing.

Mundane actions, everyday conversations, and unnecessary scenes can be summarized instead of written out in detail. This tool prevents boredom and keeps the pace moving. To make your passages of summary interesting, you can include specific details and character voice that communicate the necessary information.

Once you understand when to show and when to tell, your story will grip readers with the important moments and allow them to breeze past the unimportant ones.

What is your favorite passage of summary in your own manuscript?