Show, Don't Tell

One of the most frequently dispensed pieces of writing advice is the admonition to "show, don't tell."  This seems like such a simple homily, yet it's one of the most difficult to explain and harder yet to execute.  Readers want to feel like they are part of the story you're telling.  They want to experience it by being asked to create part of it.  This means that writers don't spell everything out so there is nothing left to the readers' imaginations.  Readers want to create their own responses and their own visualizations from the tidbits you feed them.  In this way, they are co-creators of the story because they are able to create their own interpretations of the writing.  Your job as a writer is to give readers just enough detail, just enough hints and prompts that readers can come to their own conclusions about the characters and story lines you're presenting.  This creates active readers who become involved in and invested in your story rather than passive readers who just read and observe whatever images are being fed to them.  Active readers will stick with a story and be excited about it.  Bored readers may abandon the story altogether.  The key is investment.  We tend not to stay with things we're not invested in.  So help your readers be invested in your story.  Give them details, but not all the details.  Leave some things for your readers to guess or wonder about.  Leave gaps for the readers to fill in themselves.  Create suspense and interest by painting faint outlines of imagery so that readers can fill in the picture with their own colors and forms and sensations.  In other words, make your readers work.  Ask them to be active participants in your story.  Coax and invite them to fill in the details and figure things out for themselves.  If you are able to do that, you are mastering "show, don't tell," and you are creating engaged and grateful readers who will come back to your writing again and again.