Three Tricks For Showing Rather Than Telling

Posted by: twtrifles on: November 11, 2014

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Writing and Illustrating

Three Tricks For Showing Rather Than Telling

 by Trish Wilkinson

For readers to become invested in a story, they need to “see” characters’ movement and action within a setting. Writers often hear, “Show don’t tell,” and sometimes we think, “But I did show – didn’t I? How do I fix this?”

Here are a few quick tips for showing rather than telling:

1. Use ACTIVE VERBS rather than passive ones wherever possible.

Keep this list of passive verbs near your computer until you get in the habit of using them sparingly. (I tell my students: “If you must use passive verbs, limit them to no more than one or two on a page.”)

• Forms of be to AVOID: is, are, was, were, be, being, and been
• Auxiliary verbs: am, did, do, does, can, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, has, have, had, could
• Adjectives (describing words)
• Adverbs (words used to…

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