This is a very specific rule that has been taken dramatically out of context and is almost always used incorrectly.
âShow, donât tellâ applies to character traits and worldbuilding, not information in the plot.
It may be easier to âgetâ this rule if you forget the specific phrasing for a minute. This is a mnemonic device to avoid Informed Attributes, nothing more and nothing less.Â
Character traits like a character being funny, smart, kind, annoying, badass, etc, should be established by their behavior in-universe and the reactions of others to themâif you just SAY theyâre X thing but never show it, then youâre just telling the audience these things. Similarly you canât just tell the audience that a setting has brutal winters and expect to be believed, when the clothing, architecture, preparations, etc shown as common in that setting do not match those that brutal winters would necessitate.Â
Violations of Show Donât Tell:
A viewpoint character describing themselves as having a trait (being a loner, easily distractable, clumsy, etc) but not actually shown to possess it (lacking friends, getting distracted from anything important, or dropping/tripping over things at inopportune moments.)
The narration declaring an emotional state (âCharacter A was furiousâ) rather than demonstrating the emotion through dialogue or depicting it onscreen.
A fourth-wall-breaking narrator; ie, Kuzco in The Emperorâs New Groove directly addressing the audience to explain that heâs a llama and also the protagonist, is NOT the same! This actually serves as a flawless example of showing rather than tellingâwe are SHOWN that Kuzco is immature and egotistical, even though thatâs not what heâs saying.
A fictional society or setting being declared by the narrative to be free of a negative traitâbigotry, for exampleâbut that negative trait being clearly present, where this discrepancy is not narratively engaged with.Â
(For example: There is officially no sexism in Thedas and yet female characters are subject to gendered slurs and expectations; the world of Honor Harrington is supposedly societally opposed to eugenics, yet âcuresâ for disability and constant mentions of a nebulous genetic âadvantageâ from certain charactersâ ancestry are regular plot points that are viewed positively by the characters and are not narratively questioned.)
A character declaring that their society has no bigotry, when that character is clearly wrong, is not the same thing.
The narrative voice declaring objective correctness; everyone who agrees with the protagonist is portrayed as correct and anyone who questions them is portrayed as evil, or else there is no questioning whatsoever. For example: in Star Trek: Enterprise, Jonathan Archer tortures an unarmed prisoner. What follows is a multi-episode arc in which every person he respects along with Starfleet Command goes out of their way to dismiss the idea that he should bear any guilt, or that his actions were anything but completely necessary and objectively morally correct. No narrative space is allowed for disagreement, or for the audience to come to its own conclusion.
NOT Violations of Show Donât Tell:
A character explaining a concept to another character who would logically, within that universe/situation, be the recipient of such an explanation.
An in-universe explanation BECOMES a SdT violation if the explanation fails to play out in reality, such as a spaceship being described as slow or flawed in some way but never actually having those weaknesses. Imagine if the Millennium Falcon was constantly described as a broken-down piece of junkâŚand never had any mechanical failures, AND Han and Chewie werenât constantly shown repairing it!
Information being revealed through dialogue, period. Having your hacker in a heist movie describe the enemy security system isnât âtellingâ and thus bad writing. Having information revealed organically through dialogue is what âshowâ means.
The âas you knowâ trope is technically a Show Donât Tell violation, despite being dialogue, because itâs unnatural within the universe and serves solely to let the writer deliver information directly, ie, telling.
Characters discussing their own actions and expressing their motivations and/or decision-making process at the time.
The existence of an omnipotent narrator, or the narration itself confirming something. Narration saying âthere was no way anyone could make it in timeâ is delivering contextual information, not breaking Show Donât Tell.Â
Keep in mind that âShow, donât tellâ is meant to be advice for beginning authors. Because âtellingâ is easier and requires less skill than âshowing,â inexperienced authors need to focus on getting as much âshowâ in as possible.Â
However, âtellingâ is also extremely important. Sometimes, especially in written formats, the most appropriate way to deliver information to the audience is to just say it and move on.
Keep in mind that a viewpoint character in anything butâŚa portal fantasy, essentiallyâŚis going to be familiar with the world theyâre in. Not every protagonist needs to be a raw newcomer with zero knowledge of their new world! In most cases, a viewpoint character is going to know things that the audience doesnât. Generally, the ONLY natural way to introduce worldbuilding in this situation is to just have the narration point them out. (It makes sense for Obi-Wan to have to explain the Force; it would make no sense for Han to explain the concept of space travel to Luke, who grew up in this universe and knows what the hell a starship is. So, if youâre writing the novelization of A New Hope, you need to just say âand so they jumped into hyperspace, the strange blue-white plane that allowed faster-than-light travelâ and move the hell on.)
For that matter, in some media (ie, childrenâs cartoons) where teaching a moral lesson is the clear intent, a certain level of âtellingâ is not only appropriate but necessary!
The actual goal of âshowingâ and âtellingâ is to maintain a balance, and make sure everything feels natural. Show things that need to be shown, andâŚdonât waste everyoneâs time showing things that would feel much more natural if they were just told.
But thatâs not nearly as pithy a slogan.
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