Bumped into a retired English teacher at a truck stop diner who made me rethink the whole 'show don't tell' rule

I was grabbing coffee somewhere outside Tulsa around 2 AM last week, and this older woman at the counter starts talking about how she taught creative writing for 30 years. She said her biggest pet peeve was how everyone drills 'show don't tell' into beginners like it's a law. She told me sometimes telling is better, especially if you want to get a story moving fast. Said 'the lantern light flickered against the peeling wallpaper' takes three times as long as just saying 'the room was creepy.' I never thought about it that way. Any of you ever break that rule on purpose and have it work?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarcooper29d ago

Yeah, that bit about 'the room was creepy' really hit home for me. I was writing a short story last year where my main character walks into his childhood bedroom after his mom passed away. I spent like three paragraphs describing the dust motes and the faded band posters and the way the closet door hung crooked. Then I read it back and realized all I really needed was one line: 'The room felt smaller than he remembered, and emptier too.' Sometimes the direct gut punch is way stronger than dancing around it with all that description.

troy43929d ago

Usually takes me three failed drafts before I figure out which three words actually do the job.