Showing Readers

Beginning writers often want to tell readers everything. They are so excited about what they're writing, they don't want to leave out any details. While this kind of enthusiasm is heartening, it can be the death knell for a story, article, essay or poem. The advice writers often hear is "show, don't tell." This admonition is given for a very good reason. Readers read to discover. That's the primary urge that drives reading pleasure. That means readers want to question, wonder, discover, be surprised, think and figure things out. They look to writers to provide them with just the right amount of clues or impetus to do so. They want writers to grease the gears, but then get out of the way and let readers drive the experience. Writers who do too much telling rob their readers of this important opportunity to grow. Writers don't want to be told, they want to be shown. For writers, this means not directly telling readers what is going to happen or how the writer is going to make it happen, or how readers are going to feel once it happens. It means, instead, showing readers what happens through good, effective, selective language and detail that teases but doesn't spoil the suspense. It is writing that baits readers and asks them to take a journey which they, the readers, largely direct. The writer is just there as a guide, but the trip belongs to the readers and the readers are allowed to draw their own conclusions, discover their own surprises, learn their own lessons. Showing readers rather than telling them is the hallmark of an accomplished and smart writer.