Tomoyuki

Yeah, I agree with what you are saying. Having a sheet to track characters just helps keep them straight so you don’t contradict yourself. It will not make your writing better unless you follow it, haha.

It doesn’t hurt to have extra information about your character, but you don’t need to tell the reader everything in an info dump. Only tell the necessary information to your readers, but knowing everything about your character can’t hurt. Your characters will feel more real if you have a deeper understanding of them.

Having a “smart” character that does dumb things is lazy writing. Also, showing that a character is smart is better than telling readers a character is smart. We are on the same page, I think.

    Oh yeah, I just remembered one of the stories that made me pretty annoyed. A clear example of tell and no show. Or lazy writing. Anyone heard of My Super Hot Mom is An Assassin? We even have an officially translated manhua here on Webnovel. Not sure if it's worth your fast passes, though.

    Basically, we (the readers) are told how the female protagonist is a top assassin, so you'd think that she's strong and skilled, right? But no...throughout the story, she gets defeated by everybody. She can't even fight a gunman, she gets captured by maids, she can't fight the male lead because he's stronger than her (so much for being an assassin) and ends up being raped by him multiple times. She can't even sneak into the male lead's house without getting caught, and the male lead and his assistant see through her disguise immediately when she poses as their driver. And even though she's an assassin, she leaves the door to her apartment and bathroom unlocked, so the male lead can sneak inside and peek on her in the shower. And when that happened, instead of reacting like an assassin, she screams and gets all shy. Also, I don't think she actually killed a single person throughout the entire story. She finally got the courage to shoot a girl late in the story...only for the girl to survive anyway, which makes her a complete failure of an assassin.

    ...so how exactly is she a top assassin? We're supposed to believe that she's a top assassin simply because the author tells us that? Why isn't she behaving like one?

      Always showing over telling. You have to hold the reader's hand and walk him or her through your book, make them feel and see what you are visualizing. And there are way too many things to show—like character's mood, setting of the place, sensory details, actions, etc.

      Example: I would rather show my character's anger in a dialogue, an action or how his expressions are, or how he feels internally, rather than merely saying, "He was angry."

        MishaK As a reader, I'd agree. But its kinda hard to show (without proper vocabulary and English is my 3rd language, so I can't really write concisely)

          Tomoyuki
          What even is this novel? I'm getting a headache just reading this summary alone. I don't think the author knows what an assasain is.

          Its not even lazy writing here, its just stupid.

              Tomoyuki It's a manhua titled My Super Hot Mom is an Assassin. Webnovel even has it translated here.

              Hummina hummina hummina bazooooooooing! eyes pop out AROOOOOOOOGA! jaw drops tongue rolls out WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF tongue bursts out of the outh uncontrollably leaking face and everything in reach WURBLWUBRLBWURblrwurblwurlbrwubrlwburlwbruwrlblwublr tiny cupid shoots an arrow through heart Ahhhhhhhhhhh me lady... heart in the shape of a heart starts beating so hard you can see it through shirt AUUUUUUUUUUUUUU rocket thruster opens and launch with hundreds of fireworks YA HA HAAAAAAAUUUUU lands down to chair and crash AAUUUHHHH!

                  Dzeeck I suppose that was my reaction after reading the manhua.

                      Hey! Can you guys help me find a book:
                      the female lead was a doctor from past era, loved a man but in an accident she died and when she woke up she was a high school girl who wants to commit suicide just because of a failure in love confession.

                        EternalNightLotus I actually subconsciously been doing both as well. I never had a reader complain about it, but they didn't even mention it so far. I feel like showing too much gets boring, but if you use repeating expressions, for me, I usually use something like: 'he rubbed the back of his neck' to usually show uncertainty, but that's because I've been mostly consistent with doing so.
                        As for the tell part, sometimes it's better to ommit long winded explanations of just obvious feelings. You'll need that same space to further the story. Since my story is written from the first person, I usually use my main character to explain what he thinks others are feeling. For example, it'd look something like this: 'I wasn't sure, but knowing him, I'd say he was more or less perplexed."
                        Something along those lines I'd say is decent enough. In my case, I use about 7 tells for 3 shows. maybe 6:4, I'm not sure lol But what's important, is that I use more tells, because it shortens those unnecessary words, for important informations, and plot.

                            Benny_Manatee

                            Sounds like you have your own style, which is good, but I disagree with some of this. While telling is generally the shorter option, it isn’t always. Being repetitive is a problem (unless do it intentionally for some reason), but it isn’t unique to showing.

                            You can mix up expressions with synonyms or by focusing on different actions the character is doing (or a different part of their actions). Being concise is just a skill you develop over time.

                            For example, if you have a scene where someone is nervous you can both show and tell. There is a way to do both concisely and without repetition. Also, you can be long winded and repetitive with both. Here is an example of a show and tell scene that doesn’t have “long winded explanations” or “repetitive expressions.”

                            • Tell

                            He was nervous. Before long, he grew more nervous. After five minutes, he was worse.

                            • Show

                            He was fidgeting in his seat. Before long, he started twiddling his fingers. After five minutes, he started glancing over his shoulder.

                            Okay, my show is a bit longer, but there is no “long winded explanation” I just adjusted things to focus on what the man is doing rather than how he is feeling. Thus, I’m showing and not telling…

                            Also note that my tell is more repetitive than my show. I also feel like people that tell usually aren’t as considerate because they add adjectives to try to make things seem more well-written or exciting. Usually it starts to look like this:

                            • Tell

                            He was very nervous. Before long, he grew more way more nervous. After five minutes, he was way way worse because his nervousness was increasing.

                            Now, it’s about the same length as the show because “filler words” were added. The reason this happens if because tells don't naturally include emotions and magnitude. With a show you can usually express things like “more nervous” by going from a small nervous twitch to a larger one. There is also emotions attached because the reader can relate to the actions that are being shown.

                            Similarly “it was scary” is not as scary as “it was pitch black outside” or whatever you describe. I am not great at explaining this or examples, but I hope the concept came across, haha.

                                Cowshed
                                Well, from what I know "show, don't tell" is more relevant to elements of the plot of the story, rather than descriptions.

                                One very common thing you will see is a character or the narrator saying something about a character instead of having a scene giving that information.

                                For example, if I tell you a person is impulsive, you would absorb that information, but it wouldn't particularly stick with you.

                                Now, if you saw that said person being impulsive, it would leave a way stronger impression on you.

                                That is why showing is better than telling.

                                    The question should be do you prefer being shown or being told. And the answer is pretty obvious from other comments on this thread.

                                      One thing about tell tho, sometimes you have to present a narrative summary. e.g. once upon a time, there was a kingdom in a land far far away. In that kingdom, lived a king and a queen. After trying for many years, they failed to have a child. One day, an old woman knocked on their door. Blah blah. Sort of like the premise/prologue. In that case, you need to 'tell', since there is no other way. Altho, yes, showing is always preferable in the main events of the story.

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