In an article for Writer’s Digest, Tiffany Yates Martin offers advice on using show-don’t-tell to reveal your characters on the page. “Bringing characters to life on the page comprises a myriad of context and detail that, if done well, may seem invisible to readers, but which work together to create a full, cohesive picture in their minds of who your characters are, who they have been, and who they are becoming,” she writes. “It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that character is revealed in every moment, in every choice, every reaction.”
Readers meet characters the way we meet people in real life – bit by bit, over time. While your time in a novel is limited, you should still avoid dumping out too much information too quickly, either in exposition or dialogue. “Like an Impressionist painting, characters take on depth, dimension, and texture with countless layered brushstrokes of detail, and every single moment of the character on the page is a chance for you to lay in another stroke of color,” Yates Martin says.
Reveal your characters by showing
Let your readers observe your characters in motion and reach their own conclusions. Where is your protagonist and how is he behaving in the moment? What does he say or notice, what worries him, and what prompts him into action? What does your hero not say or not notice? What actions does he avoid? Subtext, body language, gestures, expressions, and eye contact will also reveal character. Each detail you choose will convey a message but also raise questions. A character with a shaky hand may seem nervous, but why? Or perhaps this results from a medical condition. What does your character’s choice to hide or not hide this condition tell the reader?
“From the moment we ‘meet’ your characters, every detail is a clue to understanding who they are, a puzzle piece for us to begin to put together—a process that engages readers directly in the story and makes them an active part of it, rather than a passive audience,” Yates Martin writes.
Your character’s interiority is another powerful method for revealing by showing. What does your protagonist think about herself? How does she react to what’s going on around her? Does she embarrass herself accidentally? “Readers need to be privy to what characters make of events, how they process them, what impact events have on the character, and what change those developments may have on their attitudes and actions,” Yates Martin says. “Inner life is where readers most intimately and vividly see how your characters are moving along their arcs.”It’s easy to overdo interiority, so remember that a little bit can establish a lot about your character. You can also use telling to reveal how other characters respond to your protagonist and how she feels about that.
Reveal your characters by telling
Yates Martin identifies three perspectives for using descriptive telling to reveal character: the character’s own, other characters’, and the narrative perspective. For example, you might use narration to explain how your protagonist arrived in her present circumstances or how she feels about herself or actions and decisions in her recent past. In close third POV or first person, your protagonist’s thoughts can be used to tell the reader key details. In more distant POV, you might rely on narration to fill in some gaps between elements you’ve shown.
