Guidance on 'showing rather than telling'?
Hi, there.
This is my first post, so I'll just say hello first. I'm entirely new to writing: I've had a few goes over the last month, having been inspired by some of the fantastic House fics I've been reading, but it's naive, instinctive stuff. I'd very much like to learn to write better. This is also the only fandom I've ever read, so my experience is entirely limited to House.
Reading around on here, I've seen a reference or two to 'showing rather than telling', and I''m wondering whether anyone would be willing to expand on that, because I'm not really sure what it means in anything other than a fairly superficial sense. Instinctively I realise that some things are better left to the imagination of the reader, and that it's (presumably) the job of the writer simply to set the scene, but I'm not sure how far it's considered appropriate to take that.
I hope it's ok to illustrate by way of reference. Assuming that it is, I read Bironic's Untouchable an hour or so ago, and there's a lot of detail in there about what House and Wilson did, and what Wilson was thinking. Without that detail I feel the story would have lost its impact. It's against that sort of background that I'm confused about what's meant by 'show rather than tell'.
I hope I've not posted this in the wrong place, and that it's an appropriate question. Apologies in advance if I've got something wrong.
This is my first post, so I'll just say hello first. I'm entirely new to writing: I've had a few goes over the last month, having been inspired by some of the fantastic House fics I've been reading, but it's naive, instinctive stuff. I'd very much like to learn to write better. This is also the only fandom I've ever read, so my experience is entirely limited to House.
Reading around on here, I've seen a reference or two to 'showing rather than telling', and I''m wondering whether anyone would be willing to expand on that, because I'm not really sure what it means in anything other than a fairly superficial sense. Instinctively I realise that some things are better left to the imagination of the reader, and that it's (presumably) the job of the writer simply to set the scene, but I'm not sure how far it's considered appropriate to take that.
I hope it's ok to illustrate by way of reference. Assuming that it is, I read Bironic's Untouchable an hour or so ago, and there's a lot of detail in there about what House and Wilson did, and what Wilson was thinking. Without that detail I feel the story would have lost its impact. It's against that sort of background that I'm confused about what's meant by 'show rather than tell'.
I hope I've not posted this in the wrong place, and that it's an appropriate question. Apologies in advance if I've got something wrong.