In a guest post on Writers in the Storm, Janice Hardy says the “show, don’t tell” rule can strengthen your writing in three distinct ways, regardless of what POV you choose.
“‘Showing’ is a moving target that varies by which point of view you use, the narrative distance, and even the genre,” she says. “What works for a first-person literary journey might not work for a multiple third-person thriller.”
Hardy says that “show, don’t tell” can help you:
- Create a Strong Point of View. “A solid point of view changes a detached, flat sentence into something alive and shown,” Hardy says. “The weak POV explains the situation…thestrong POV shows how someone in this situation would act.”
- Control Your Narrative Distance. “Narrative distance is how close readers feel to the story,” Hardy explains. With a close narrative distance, the reader feels like they are experiencing the story through the narrator’s eyes. With a distant narrative, the reader is more like an observer.
- Show What the Characters Do, Not What They Intend to Do. “Stories are about interesting people solving interesting problems in interesting ways,” Hardy writes. “So, show what they do, not what they plan to do.”
