Trembling hands, not 'she was scared'
Instead of announcing 'she was nervous,' show her hands trembling as she reached for the doorknob — and the reader feels it themselves. 'Show, don't tell' turns flat statements into scenes a reader lives inside.
Let readers experience it
'Telling' states a fact ('She was nervous'). 'Showing' dramatizes it with action and sensory detail ('Her hands trembled as she reread the letter'). Showing pulls readers into the scene and lets them feel the emotion themselves.
Tell: He was angry. Show: He slammed the door so hard the windows rattled.
Lab · Rewrite the tell
- Take the sentence 'The room was messy.'
- List two concrete things you'd actually see.
- Rewrite it using those details instead of the word 'messy'.
What you should see: A showing version — e.g. 'Clothes spilled off the chair and pizza boxes towered on the desk' — lets the reader picture it.