Craft Post: On Show vs Tell (Patreon)

This is an extract from a reply where someone was discussing Show vs Tell in another FB group. I figured I'd repost it here with some minor edits to make it make more sense as a blog post.

The example given was how a book had 'an old man in a library that he swiped his pass card through'. And that was all telling vs showing.

One thing to consider is that the discussion on Show vs Tell has multiple areas playing into it at the same time. The art of making it work (within those areas) is what makes writing so interesting.

- Showing vs Telling relates to how important the detail is. Is this library and the old man going to matter? If not, there's no point writing multiple lines to describe him if he is gone the next moment.

- Where are you? Is the setting modern day, 19th century England, a fantasy world or a scifi world? Consider how you the setting in a 'library' in all those looks. Now, you see why it might need more description in say, a scifi world than a modern day world. 

- Even then, if I said neighborhood library or main central library, those single / two additional words starts painting a different picture in your mind. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't, but just a few words additional can make a difference. If you had a giant fight in the 'library', you might need to have set the scene earlier by talking about how many floors, whether they used wood or steel shelving, if they had a lot of people or not.

- information flow matters. A library and an old man is fine sometimes. But is the old man hunched over with rheumy eyes and a long beard, that you then grab and use to slam his head into the table? Sometimes, you describe things early to feed that information to the reader so that when you need it later, it's already in the readers mind. Instead of throwing him out of the story when you describe grabbing his beard and the reader goes... what!?! what beard? And goes thrown out of the story.

- pacing. Description can slow or speed up pacing. Using it wisely will let you keep the story flowing well. Or not. 

- opinion. Character opinion in descriptions can make a character SOOO much more believable. It makes characters breathe, because they 'live' with past histories. A line like 'I walked into the old neighborhood library where crotchety old Ben sat, the asshole who'd banned me for chewing gum when I was 6' tells a lot about the character and his history. It makes the character live.

- descriptions also allow you to play with senses, making people 'live' in the world, rather than keeping them at arms length. Taking a moment (sometimes) to add the other senses, like touch (is it too cold in the library?) or smell (the cloying perfume of a woman who'd been just ahead of you, the musty smell of paperbacks) can help. If you are in a scene where you're looking to linger, it pains a more vivid picture.

- who are you writing for? Modern readers in general need less description. One example and reasoning I saw is because we've all consumed so much more media than someone 100 years ago. We all can picture the 'Eiffel tower' and I don't need to describe it further than that. But what does a Mana tower look like? 

- lastly, and this makes a HUGE difference. Author style.

Some authors are really brief, with small descriptions. Others are verbose. Readers will, eventually, pick up on your style and gravitate towards it. But, if you aren't selling, if you aren't getting a lot of read-through... or seeing people bounce out of your books a lot, especially at the start. Maybe consider why and look at fixing your writing, adding more 'showing'.

Show don't tell is a balancing act. Learning how to balance is up to you.  Otherwise, this would be a science and not an art form.