Show Me Again (Part 2 of 6)

Here’s what we call a telling statement: Jason raged against his wife. Because rage is a strong verb, many writers assume they’ve shown emotion. They haven’t. Here’s a picture of rage: Jason grabbed Ellen’s chiffon dress off the hanger and ripped it down the front. He threw it to the floor and stomped on it with his muddy boots.

You may think the art of showing is a modern concept, but it's always been the mark of good writing. Here’s an example from the 1857 novel, Madame Bovary. If Gustave Flaubert had been a lazy writer, he could have said, "Charles Bovary was a boring person." Despite being a trifle long, he makes us see and feel Charles:

Charles’s conversation was as flat as a sidewalk, with everyone’s ideas walking through in ordinary dress, arousing neither emotion, nor laughter, nor dreams. He had never been curious, he said, to go and see a touring company of Paris actors at the theatre. He couldn’t swim, fence, or shoot, and once he couldn’t even explain to Emma a term about horseback riding she had come across in a novel. (p.60)

Showing brings life to your writing and makes readers part of your story.