Show Don't Tell: A Writing Guide with Examples

“Show, don’t tell” is the most common advice given to writers. It is also the most misunderstood. Here is what it actually means, how to do it, and — just as importantly — when to break the rule.

Telling vs Showing

Telling states a fact. Showing creates an experience. When you tell, you describe something abstractly: “He was nervous.” When you show, you provide concrete evidence from which the reader draws the same conclusion: “He tapped his foot under the table and wiped his palms on his trousers.”

The showing version engages the reader’s senses. Instead of being told a character is nervous, you see physical evidence — the tapping foot, the sweaty palms — and draw the conclusion yourself. That active participation is what makes showing more powerful. The reader becomes a participant in meaning-making rather than a passive recipient of information.

The Psychology of Showing

Showing works because of a psychological principle called the inference gap. When a reader infers an emotion or trait from concrete details, they experience a small cognitive reward — the satisfaction of having figured something out. Telling the reader what to feel short-circuits this reward. The reader who works to understand that a character is anxious by observing their trembling hands and darting eyes has a stronger connection to that character than the reader who is simply told “she was anxious.”

This is also why showing creates more memorable writing. Information that the reader actively constructs is stored more effectively than information that is passively received. A scene that shows a character’s grief through empty coffee mugs and untouched food will stay with the reader longer than a sentence that says “she was grieving.”

How to Show Emotions

Anger

Telling: He was furious. Showing: His face reddened. His hands curled into fists at his sides, and when he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet.

Notice the specific details: reddening face, curled fists, quiet voice. The quietness is especially effective because it subverts the expected yelling — the character is so angry they have moved past shouting into cold control. Showing anger through restrained behavior is often more powerful than showing it through explosive behavior.

The spectrum of anger can be shown through increasingly intense physical cues: tight jaw and clipped words at mild annoyance, flushed face and raised voice at moderate anger, trembling hands and controlled breathing at barely restrained fury, and finally the terrifying calm that comes when anger has passed into cold rage.

Sadness

Telling: She felt sad. Showing: She stared out the window without seeing anything. Her tea sat untouched, growing cold.

The key here is inaction. The character stops engaging with the world around them. The untouched tea is a concrete detail that implies loss of appetite and emotional withdrawal. Sadness often manifests as absence — the absence of energy, interest, or engagement.

Sadness can also show through small, automatic actions: tracing the rim of a glass, folding and refolding a piece of paper, scrolling through old messages. These repetitive, almost unconscious behaviors suggest a mind that cannot focus on the present because it is stuck in the past.

Fear

Telling: He was scared. Showing: The hair on his arms stood up. He glanced over his shoulder for the third time in as many minutes.

Fear shows up in involuntary physical responses and repeated behaviors. The hair standing up is automatic; the repeated glances show a conscious attempt to detect a threat. Showing fear through both involuntary and voluntary actions creates a layered portrait.

Different types of fear require different physical manifestations. The sudden spike of immediate danger produces a startle response — sharp intake of breath, frozen posture, dilated pupils. Chronic anxiety produces fidgeting, nail-biting, scanning behavior. Anticipatory fear — waiting for bad news — produces pacing, checking the clock, and starting at every sound.

Joy

Telling: She was happy. Showing: She laughed and spun in a circle, arms outstretched. The sound seemed too big for the small room.

Joy is one of the hardest emotions to show without resorting to cliché because its physical manifestations — smiling, laughing, bright eyes — are so well-known that they can feel generic. The key is specificity. What does this particular character’s joy look like? A quiet character might show joy through a rare, genuine smile. A stoic character might show joy through an unwilling laugh that escapes despite their control.

Surprise

Telling: He was surprised. Showing: His coffee cup stopped halfway to his mouth. He blinked twice, then set the cup down without drinking.

Surprise creates a momentary freeze — the character stops whatever they are doing while their brain processes unexpected information. The duration and intensity of that freeze tells the reader how significant the surprise is. A small surprise produces a brief pause. A life-altering surprise may stop the character for a full beat, then produce a physical reaction like sitting down or gripping something for support.

How to Show Character Traits

Generosity

Telling: Sarah was generous. Showing: Sarah slid a twenty-dollar bill across the counter. “Get something for yourself too,” she said to the cashier.

Arrogance

Telling: Mark was arrogant. Showing: Mark leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “I’m sure you did your best, but let me show you how it’s really done.”

Body language reveals as much as words. Leaning back with hands behind the head signals superiority. The condescending tone in “I’m sure you did your best” does the rest. Character is revealed through action, dialogue, and physical behavior — not through labels.

Dishonesty

Telling: She was lying. Showing: She told the story without looking at him. Her voice went up at the end of her sentences like she was asking rather than telling. When he asked a follow-up question, she gave too much detail.

Lying has recognizable physical and verbal patterns: avoiding eye contact, vocal uncertainty (uptalk), and over-explaining. The liar gives more information than necessary because they are trying to make the lie believable. An honest person gives the minimum; a dishonest person overcorrects.

Kindness

Telling: He was a kind person. Showing: When the waitress spilled coffee on his sleeve, he said, “Don’t worry about it — these things happen.” He asked for her name and left a note for her manager complimenting her service.

True kindness shows in how a character treats people who cannot do anything for them. A character who is polite to their boss but rude to service workers is not kind; they are strategic. Showing kindness through behavior toward the powerless is more revealing than showing it through behavior toward equals or superiors.

How to Show Settings

Instead of saying a place is old or beautiful or dangerous, describe what a character would notice:

Telling: The house was haunted. Showing: The floorboards creaked even when nobody walked on them. A cold draft followed her from room to room, though all the windows were shut.

Telling: The restaurant was fancy. Showing: A waiter in a black vest pulled out her chair. Three forks sat beside the plate, each one for a different course she had not ordered yet.

The showing version uses specific, concrete details. The reader infers “haunted” from the creaking and the cold draft. The reader infers “fancy” from the waiter’s attentiveness and the multiple forks. The setting comes alive through what the character perceives.

Time Period Through Showing

Showing can convey time period without explicit dating. A character who mails a letter and waits weeks for a reply suggests a pre-digital era. A character who checks their phone and expects an immediate reply suggests the present. A character who communicates through implanted neural interface suggests the future. The technological details shown through character behavior do the work that explicit exposition would do less elegantly.

When to Tell Instead

Showing takes more words. Sometimes telling is better. Use telling for transition scenes (“Three weeks later…”), minor details (“He wore a blue shirt.”), repetitive action (“She checked her email every morning.”), and pacing — a fast-paced action scene needs direct statements to maintain momentum.

Good writing mixes both. Show the important moments — emotional turning points, character introductions, key revelations. Tell the connective tissue — transitions, routine actions, minor details. The ratio should be roughly 80% show, 20% tell for most narrative fiction.

The Showing Efficiency Scale

Common Mistakes

Over-showing every detail. Not every raised eyebrow needs a paragraph of description. Reserve showing for moments that carry emotional weight.

Ignoring pacing. In an action scene, “He was terrified” gets the point across faster than a detailed description of trembling hands. Match your technique to the scene’s rhythm.

Telling through dialogue. A character saying “I am so angry” is still telling. Have them slam a door instead.

Showing the wrong thing. Showing every physical detail of a room while the character experiences a life-changing moment directs attention away from what matters. Show what the character would notice, not everything the camera would see.

Exercise

Try rewriting these telling statements as showing: “The classroom was boring.” “He was exhausted.” “They were in love.” “The food was delicious.” For each one, ask: what would a camera see? What would the senses register? The answer to that question is your showing version.

FAQ

Q: Do I need to show every single emotion? A: No. Minor emotions in transitional scenes can be told efficiently. Reserve showing for the emotional beats that matter — turning points, revelations, character-defining moments. Over-showing every emotion creates overwrought prose where nothing stands out because everything is equally emphasized.

Q: How do I know if I am showing or telling? A: Look for abstract nouns and emotion words — “anger,” “sadness,” “beautiful,” “frightening.” If you use the word for the emotion rather than the physical evidence of the emotion, you are likely telling. Replace the abstract word with concrete sensory details that allow the reader to infer the emotion.

Q: Can I show and tell at the same time? A: Yes, but it is usually redundant. “She was nervous, tapping her foot and chewing her lip” both tells and shows the same thing. Choose one approach per detail. Either trust the reader to infer from the action or trust them to accept the stated emotion. Doing both wastes words and treats the reader as less intelligent than they are.

Q: What is the most common mistake beginners make? A: Over-showing. Beginner writers often take “show, don’t tell” as an absolute rule and describe every raised eyebrow and every breath. The result is prose that is slow, overwritten, and exhausting to read. Learn to show first, then learn when telling serves the story better.

Q: Does showing apply to nonfiction? A: Absolutely. Narrative nonfiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction all benefit from showing. Instead of “the conference was chaotic,” show “speakers talked over each other at the podium while the AV technician ran between the projector and the soundboard.” The same principles apply: concrete details create reader engagement in any genre.

Q: How do I show internal states like confusion or realization? A: Confusion shows as hesitation, repeated questions, or trying multiple approaches to a problem. Realization shows as a pause, a change in expression, or a quiet statement of understanding: “Oh. I see.” The internal state is externalized through behavior the reader can observe.

More writing help: Our writing guides collection covers dialogue, character development, story structure, and more.

For a comprehensive overview, read our article on Active Vs Passive Voice.