Tips for Fantasy Writers

chapter 4

#4) Show don't tell

Another mantra. Another difficult to interpret tip. It's easy to fall into the habit of writing news reports. News reports are the stories most of us are reading and hearing all the time. Today a man was run over by a bus. It's a simple story and that's all that's needed to tell it. What can be done to show it? A bus comes down the street and runs over a man. I was crossing the road and a bus ran me over. I was driving a bus and I ran over a man. Your husband is in hospital after an accident. How did it happen? There was a bus, he was crossing the street, the driver had no time to swerve. There was a squeal of tyres and a sickening thud. Traffic came to a halt and pedestrians stopped to stare. The street was buzzing with parked cars and commuters. The man was in a hurry. The bus driver considered his options: sell the car or remortgage his house. He glanced at the picture of his sick child...

News reports provide the minimum information necessary to convey the events. Details are left out. If detail is required it comes later in order of importance and relevance. To 'show' a story all the detail has to be put in, relevant or not. It may not be in chronological order but can be in chunks that slot back together to see the full picture.