Advice You’ve Probably Heard Before: Show Don’t Tell
Show don’t tell is one of the many common pieces of advice given to writer’s. Every editor is probably going to tell you this. A good writer doesn’t need to tell their audience everything (i.e., what a character is feeling, whether someone is wicked or good, whether something is funny or dark…). The Marvel Universe really should practice this advice in their most recent films. If you have talent, and you can write, then you will be able to show your audience these kinds of things without overstating them. Let’s dive into three components of why Show Don’t Tell is important and what exactly does that look like.
1) Don’t Assume Your Audience is Stupid:
I often have trouble with this, not for necessarily assuming my audience is stupid, but for wanting to tell them everything. Here’s the thing, though—when you feel the need to lay everything out for your audience— you kind of are assuming they’re too dumb to figure it out on their own. Disney Channel is great at this. (Yes, I know Disney Channel is for kids and I did watch some of it myself, but it is a perfect example for assuming your audience is retarded). They have a laugh track for everything you are “supposed” to find funny so you know just when to laugh, and everything a character does or feels is overstated to the max. (This kind of feels like a description for a lot of Marvel movies, e.g., Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Spiderman Homecoming, Avengers Endgame, etc. They may as well have a laugh track). I’m going to be picking on Marvel a lot in this blog because it’s relevant to our topic. :)
Maybe you don’t think you’re audience is stupid but you want them to know every detail of a character or plot point. (I struggled with this, wanting my audience to know how all my characters felt about each other. My story got much better when things weren’t so obvious and it was left to the reader to decide what characters thought about one another.) This is unnecessary; and, by failing to let your audience decide things for themselves, you’re assuming their lack of intellectual capability. Or, you’re simply trying to brainwash them to your way of thinking. No audience likes to be beaten over the head with anything, whether its telling us who to love, who’s attractive, what’s sad, or what to hate. People will form their own opinions. So, here’s a tip:
#Give your readers facts and let them make their own conclusions.
This can be tough, because we want them to get what we feel a character should be or how a scene should be felt. But don’t be a pushy writer. If a character is in pain tell the reader about the pain—don’t tell them the scene is sad. If a character is in love show me what they’re doing or describe what they want and feel, don’t actually say “so and so is in love…” There’s a time and place for certain descriptions and info dumps, and it can be hard to tell when those are. Maybe you don’t know any other way of showing your audience something unless it’s telling them? This leads into our next point.
2) Telling isn’t the same as showing:
Some think that if they tell you something is true, it removes their responsibility of actually showing us it’s true.
Character Example: Elena in Vampire Diaries. Carolyn gives a speech very early on in the series how Elena is always everyone’s choice because she’s the good girl and she’s so amazing or whatever bull crack. Elena’s so called “goodness” is never seen but referenced by all the other characters. This is an example of telling without showing and trying to brainwash you into believing all these things about Elena without any proof.
Plot Example: Murder She Wrote. Often, the murderer confesses everything to Jessica with no proof; and, when she’s unclear on the details of how they did it, they’re kind enough to fill them in for her. This is an example of not knowing how to show your audience how the murderer did it (Jessica couldn’t figure it out, I guess) so you tell them. I, personally always hated Murder She Wrote and I think she should’ve let the so called murderer get away sometimes, but we won’t get into that. Or why the police never tells this little old lady to mind her own business and why she only wants to offer her help when they don’t want it…Moving on.
Character Example: Vampire Academy. One I personally dislike is when the writer (usually female) tries to force me to find the main guy attractive by telling me every dirty detail of his appearance. “He was hot, like stand in the middle of the street and get run over by a car kind of hot.” First of all, if you can tell me what that means, I’ll give you a dollar. Second of all, I HATE being told someone is attractive through other characters. I prefer being given the description and I can decide for myself. Maybe your male character is supposed to be a looker, but there’s no guarantee he will be appealing to everyone reading it. Just tell me what he looks like and I will be able to figure out that he’s Mr. Good Looking or whatever by reading his description and the character reactions. Don’t have the main girl gush about him internally forever. Chances are, I’m going to like him less and any guy who hears about him will want him dead.
Relationship Example: Avengers Age of Ultron (Banner and Widow, a.k.a., The Stale Ham Sandwich) After Widow flirts with Banner at the bar (something we have never seen her do before or had any build up for), Steve tells Bruce, “it’s nice, you and Natasha.” I’m convinced the camera was on their faces because the Director was piling money into Chris Evans’ hand. They think because Captain America says it (a character we know and trust) then we should believe it without any proof to back it up.
-Marvel does this again with Steve and Sharon whose kiss was as if the Director added it into the script last minute. Still, they have Sharon tell Cap it was late. Late implies it was coming…which it never was, but again—we’re just supposed to nod our heads and act as if it all makes sense.
-And again, when Natasha asks Steve if their undercover kiss was his first since he’s been out of the ice? To which he replies, something to the effect of, he’s old but he’s not dead. I would ask, who have you been kissing, Steve? You can’t even get your neighbor to have coffee with you! What you’re telling us directly goes against what we’ve seen of Steve as a character, which leads into our last point.
3) What you show us has to be consistent with what you’ve already shown us:
When you get to the part where you’re showing and not telling, make sure you’re consistent.
Example: Avengers Infinity War (Wanda/Vision). In age of Ultron, Wanda is supposed to be an introverted/goth teenage mutant who just lost her brother and Vision is basically a three month old robot still getting up the guts to talk to her and make her dinner. In Infinity War, we jump to them living together in Scotland. How did this happen? It doesn’t make any sense where either got the gumption to have moved this far in their relationship. Apparently, they not only did, but we missed it. Imagine how that conversation went?
Vision: Wanda, I know we’ve only barely starting talking and I made you dinner once, which you didn’t even eat, but maybe we should start sleeping together in secret in another country, you think?
Wanda: Okay.
This is something Hollywood does when they don’t know how to explain things so they jump to people in bed together. It’s easier than showing us how it happened—because it wouldn’t have—given the characters you created.
To sum things up:
Don’t assume your audience is stupid, let them figure stuff out for themselves and form their own thoughts and opinions.
Don’t assume that telling is the same as showing—you need the material (in universe) to back up what you’re saying.
Lastly, consider if what you’re doing goes along with what we already know about your characters. Don’t pull things out of your hat.
-Hannah
