Having been told by a few people to 'show not tell' in my stories I am now tying myself in knots trying to do just that.
I am getting to the point where I can't recognize either way! Is there any fail-safe way of showing rather than telling? I know it has to be from the main character's pov, but I keep slipping back into 'me' speak. At least I think I do.
Help!
Thank you
Tracy

Tell is not all bad. There are many novels with long scene-setting descriptions, sometimes even where the mc does a little character setting for minor characters. Both of which are Tell.
But when you get to the dialogue or action scenes then show is often better, and as you already know, the tell creeps in when the author's pov pops up to point something out to the reader rather than letting them discover it for themselves from the dialogue or small non-verbal details. It's not necessary for the reader to always 'get it' or even 'get it' straight away.
As Susan Hill points out in her CW course exercise to do with describing your characters, leave the reader to do half the work. (no-one remembers details such as eye colour anyway).
Sorry, not really answering your question, but basically saying delete the 'tell' if and when you come across it in the editing stage.

- NaomiM

Hi Tracy -
I too get my knickers in a twist with this one. Sol Stein says that as an author you are not there to tell the reader that it's raining, but to give him/her the experience of being rained on(if that's any help). I don't think personally there's a hard and fast rule about this, but if you want your reader to get really involved in the story, the five (or six) senses are a good start. I am trying to ban the word 'feel' from my work as much as possible, too ('She felt angry/sad/afraid/confused'.
Best of luck,
Susie

Sol Stein's books are incredible - Solutions for Writers and Solutions for Novelists. Both brilliant.

For show, don't tell, it's sometimes the more subtle things that really work. So rather than,

It took a while, but Sue eventually got the joke.

try

Sue sat there, her face blank for like, a year, and then finally she exclaimed, 'Oh!' and started to chuckle.

Tell, rather than show, works if your narrator has a voice of their own, or you're writing in 1st - but even then, it's still stronger to let the reader work it out for themselves.

Colin M

Colin, I'm so glad you mentioned those two by Sol Stein - I haven't come across them and will look on Amazon. I've read On Writing and How To Grow A Novel - both excellent.
Susiex

Tracy
I have a brilliant sheet from a Cornerstones course kicking about somewhere on this. If you want to webmail me your 'real' email address, I can try and dig it out and email it to you,
best
Caroline

post it up! That way more people benefit. Or is it huge?

It's quite long, Colin. Would be easier to just send as an email to anyone who wants it, if that's OK.

okay. Just thinking back to a thread when people wanted to put resources and common FAQs on the site.

Also, Colin, doesn't feel quite right when it is material from a course run by a commercial organisation. Just seems sort of....dunno! But am very happy to send to anyone individually.

Ah yes. Understood. Well I'll have a copy (before the rush )

Just send me your email address and it's yours! Well, after I've dug it out, which might take several days

I should have added a "please" to that.

Thanks

Too late. I am already enormously offended.

Hi Caroline -
Could I add myself to the list for the piece about Show and Tell?
Thanks v. much
Susiex