If there is one motto every beginning writer should tape to her (his) computer, it is:  SHOW, DON'T TELL.

The difference between SHOWING and TELLING, to put it in the kind terms that someone like me can relate to, is that SHOWING is like letting the readers eat a piece of your cake while TELLING them is letting them watch someone else eat it.  I'm sure you'll agree the latter is not nearly as enjoyable!

In writing fiction, SHOWING means action.  It means that your characters say and do something.  To quote Ansen Dibell (What is Plot?  Writer's Digest Books, ISBN 0-89879-303-3), "Showing, in fiction, means creating scenes.  (A scene is) dramatized, shown, rather than being summarized or talked about. 

SHOWING creates the immediacy, the tension, that hooks the reader.  Wherever possible, SHOW.  Save the TELLING for those letters to your family and friends you no longer have time to write.

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