Show, not tell 1. Tell: "it’s snowed hard all through the night."

Show:

2. Tell: "we spent the day at the beach."

Show:

3. Tell: "I had fun at summer camp."

Show:

4. Tell: "Tim was nervous about the history test."

Show:

To be able to show instead of tell, you have to create images in the reader's mind.

Explanation:

1. "Thousands of tiny bits of snow rained down silently all night."

See, you have to say what the snow was like. You have to use at least some of the 5 senses: sight, hear, smell, taste, feel. This is how you show.

2. "We got up at the crack of dawn and piled into the car. We had already packed our bags yesterday. The cool air breezed us as we stepped out and ran on the dry sand. We swam through the ice cold water and ate crunchy sandwiches."

This is how you show. You put enough detail so that the reader knows exactly what's going on and makes the reader feel like they are in the story.

3. "All week at summer camp, my throat was sore from roaring with laughter all the time. I loved zipping through the air on ziplines with my friends, splashing them in the water in the pool, and playing hard-core basketball on the hot court."

You have to go into specifics to show. It's like looking through your own memories. You probably remember a lot from your life, all the tiny details. You have to make fake memories for story telling.

4. "Tim repeatedly chewed on his fingernails, glancing around nervously. He did not know how the test was going to be. Even though he had practiced all night for the past week, he was sure he had missed some key dates and people in history. He wondered when exactly did Abraham Lincoln die when the teacher started handing out test packets."

You take some memories from your own life and translate it to a story. What did you feel like when you where nervous for a test? What did you think when you where nervous for a test? Did you chew your fingernails? Did you think you were going to fail? This is how you show.