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Writing Tip: How to Know When You’re Showing, Not Telling by Shaunta Grimes

The following post is an excerpt from Shaunta Grimes' Medium article "Writing Tip: How to Know When You’re Showing, Not Telling"


I chose the above picture for this post, because it’s so easy to illustrate the difference between showing and telling with it.

He was kissing her.

See that? I’m telling you — they were kissing. It’s already happened. It’s easy to tell this is telling, because it’s past tense.

Even in a present tense story, this would be past tense. (And therefore, easier to pick out as telling.)

He kissed her. (Or, in present tense: They kiss.)

Much more active. It’s happening now. Showing. In the past tense, it’s a little harder to tell because past tense is inherently telling something that already happened. It’s more about the immediacy of the action.


Read the full article here!

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