I noticed webnovels are heavy telling than showing, I'm confused if it's okay or not; I'm an author who does more tell than show. I know the saying, "show, don't tell", but does this applies to webnovel? Is it necessary to show as novels do?

(Those who don't know what show, don't tell is, it's basically like this:

Tell: Her heart filled with sadness
Show: Her chest tightened, holding back her sobs.
(Example not mine, but this is basically Tell. The red flag is the word " with", a tell word just like with the word "in")

But as you notice, there are many novels on this site that did this...so I was wondering, is this really alright for you as a reader?

    If the events are rather small, like talking, 'tell' is more appropriate to use. However, in emotionally heavy situations, 'show' is the more appropriate style used.

    This days however, most of the novels I read uses 'tell' too much, to the point that the novels I'm reading are just stories, not actual stories anymore... I don't fell much of the emotions anymore. Even some really sad or painful scenes are just told... Like, they just happened. That's all.

    Anyways, I prefer 'show' more... For some emotions just can't be described through words......... .... ... ...

      Cowshed

      Showing is better than telling from a storytelling perspective. It will almost always be longer though. My general advice is to show and not tell, but sometimes you just need to get information out quickly. If anything, you want to balance these two concepts based on the perspective and importance of what you are saying.

      Perspective is often overlooked in bad stories. If your telling a story from the perspective of one character, then you can’t just tell us how a different character is feeling. This is because the point of view character can’t read other characters minds. They can only report what they see or think, so all of the other characters have to show their feelings or say them in direct speech. Your main character can just tell the reads how he/she feels/felt because it is their story.

      Importance can be another way to choose between the two. In general, the more important things should get more words because they are important. This means that you can get away with just telling the reader things they need to know if lesser importance/impact while showing them the more important/impactful things. Let the reader be fully immersed and experience the big things and just tell them the small things.

      Hope this helps a bit…

          I did a 1 min search on Google and found that showing is better in writing in general.
          If you're curious, just type, "are novels meant to show or tell."

          Don't do what the Lord of Mysteries authors second book did. I dropped because this guy word-padded the fuck out of the novel.

          You have to combine them and understand when to use them. You don't need to show everything.

            I think there's a confusion of the difference between showing and telling here.

            Tell: Her heart filled with sadness
            Show: Her chest tightened, holding back her sobs.

            No, that's not the difference. Generally, when people advise writers to show and not tell, they are referring to situations where the author simply tells people about the qualities of something rather than show it, and expect the readers to accept the description at face value even though the later scene contradicts it.

            E.g. Tell: "Mary Sue was the most intelligent girl to have existed. She graduated from XXX Academy, had three PhDs, a pilot's license and was a genius who won the Nobel Prize."

            Nobody cares about that. Telling us your character is intelligent doesn't do anything other than telling us the author's intention for the character...and then they tend to ruin it by having their characters do something incredibly stupid anyway, which contradicts what we were told. Like Mary Sue swaggering about arrogantly, insulting someone and getting into a fight for no reason. What kind of intelligent person does that?

            No, the author is supposed to show how the character is intelligent through the character's actions. Maybe have a scene where Mary Sue is working in a lab. Or have a scene where she solves a problem (maybe she looks at a crime scene, analyzes the clues and identifies the culprit, but don't skip those steps - make sure you have those descriptions).

            Another example is this:
            Tell: "A war happened here. It was violent and many people died."
            Yeah, like we are supposed to care about that when the scene shows a character idly musing to himself in a supposedly wartorn zone (what the f is he doing there?) and composing poetry while feeding birds. Show the violence and deaths. For example:
            Private Johnson screamed as he ducked down, the roar of the missile above drowning out his voice. The next second, he found himself hurled forward by a shockwave. As he rolled to his feet groggily, he saw James cut apart by shrapnel, his body disappearing into a mist of blood. Two meters away, Rick staggered as bullets punched through his armor and into his body, doing a slow dance before he collapsed.

            Johnson was beginning to regret ever enlisting in the army. The recruiting brochures had never mentioned that war would be so violent, so brutal. They had promised glory and honor. But there was no honor to be found in the battlefield. Only death.

            It's all right to tell us what emotions the characters are feeling. For example, Johnson can be screaming in fear - that's perfectly fine. No need to "show" us by describing how his pulse was racing, how he was shivering, how he went pale, etc. That's just descriptions. The point of the scene was just to show the violence, not take it for granted that the audience will listen to whatever you say. I mean, it's not even necessary to show the scene (that was just an example). Having a character step into the aftermath and seeing burned out husks of buildings is more than enough. Or rows of homeless people huddling together. The point is that if you want to tell the readers that the war was violent (example), then make it matter. Don't tell the readers that a violent war happened, and the next scene the character is just strolling through a park of the supposedly wartorn city and feeding birds.

            Showing and not telling usually refers to author pushing or projecting their intentions onto the reader and expecting us to accept their statements, only to contradict them later. Like, "Oh, the character is smart. Oh, the war was tragic." But then we don't feel it because the character does nothing in the story to indicate that he/she is smart or nobody seems particularly affected by the war.

            But that doesn't mean you need to describe every single thing like emotions, feelings, visuals, images, etc.

              Tomoyuki
              Completely agree with this. There's nothing better than when a book makes you feel visceral pain or experience anxiety just from reading some words. Showing is honestly freaking amazing when its done well.

              I sound like an M, I promise I'm not 😅

                Nah, you're not an M. Most people prefer reading stuff that really immerses them in the book and descriptions can really help with that.

                I think the issue of "show, not tell" in webnovels is especially glaring because authors keep telling us how talented and powerful "arrogant young master X" or "Elder Y" or "Old Master Z" is, gives us tons of descriptions of what their cultivation realm or level is, a dossier of their achievements, victories, skills, techniques (which they claim are difficult to learn), only to have the protagonist beat them up in less than ten seconds or curbstomp them instantly.

                If these young masters are really talented, show us. Not tell us how much of a genius they are, only to have the protagonist instant-kill them in a single paragraph because...how do you expect the readers to believe they are a genius then?

                Or the descriptions of how Jade Beauty X or Princess Y have this divine physique or whatever talent or is an unprecedented genius who every man wants to marry, only for them to always get beaten up and need the male protagonist to rescue them (an excuse for them to fall in love with him). So much for being a talented genius.

                These are the biggest problems in webnovels, which is why people generally bring up "show, not tell."

                I mean, the authors really love showing how beautiful all the heroines are. Jade Beauty X being the most beautiful girl in so-and-so Kingdom, plus paragraphs of her long, silky hair, snow-white skin, jade eyes, gorgeous curves (and something about their hips or buttocks or breasts)...and do you think readers care about that? No. After showing us the hundredth jade beauty heroine in a 1,000-chapter long story, people get sick of the authors showing off their heroines.

                So the real issue of show, not tell is the constant projection of authors' intentions, only for them to contradict what they told us later. It's not about being more descriptive. It's about being consistent and immersive, and to have the descriptions actually matter to the story.

                  Tomoyuki
                  I call it a cheap win. The author is trying to set up a big stake to get us to root for the mc without actually putting in any work to earn it.

                  Saying the young master is the best at this and that, then having the mc beat them, is much easier to do than actually showing the young master being good at things.

                  They won't do that because then they actually have to think of an plot for the story, and these kind of books generally don't have any plot.

                  If they build up the young master well enough to actually be a threat, you'll start to realise the main character isn't all that great, because they're actually a self insert for the reader and have zero personality aside from being really horny

                  As for the jade beauties, its because the author can't write women aside from their physical descriptions (because horny) and paper thin personality because (did I mention horny?)

                  Its just lazy writing in general 🤭

                      EternalNightLotus Exactly. Totally agree. It's lazy writing in general. Showing takes a lot more work than telling...but it's not as if the authors can't put in the work - they are motivated only by their horniness. Heh.

                      I think people are fed up with lazy writing more than they want the author to show, not tell.

                        shadowdrake27 Thank you. I'm still a beginner author, so balancing isn't my forte...I'll guess I'll just practice more...Thanks for the advice, helps a lot.

                          Misguided_Rooster Haha, that's true. I have a love and hate relationship with it. The author sometimes uses tell too much(Probably bc of the deadline and fast update, like 2 chapters a day...There's probably no time for edit from show to tell.)

                            Tomoyuki Hello, your advice isn't wrong, but I think there's a misunderstanding here. There are actually types of show, don't tell. Type of tells: Emotional Tells, Motivational Tells, Stage Directional Tell, Passive Tell, Descriptive Tell...What you mentioned is actually infodump(which is another tell)

                            And the aforementioned example I mentioned is emotional tell...You can learn more of show, don't tell by reading — Understanding Show, Don't Tell: And Really Getting It — By Janice Hardy...Hope this helps.

                                Tomoyuki Omg, I agree with you. I'm sick and tired of this paragraph 🤣

                                    Cowshed Whoops, sorry. Yeah, you're probably right. I'm thinking of another thing.

                                    I don't just mean info dumps (?), but also throwaway descriptions that don't matter to the story. Like in my example, why does it matter to the story if the protagonist is smart? Telling the readers that your character has x personality or y quality is pointless unless those personalities or qualities matter to the plot. Why does it matter if the heroine is beautiful or if the hero is smart? Does the plot require the hero to outthink his enemy, for example? If that's the case, then you're better served writing a scene where the hero outwits his opponent rather than simply telling the audience he is smart. Or CEO stories - if the heroine is beautiful, why does her ex-fiance/ex-boyfriend always cheats on her and dumps her for her stepsister/best friend, why is the bloody CEO so cold and absusive toward her - and if she's so beautiful, can't she find a better guy (pretty sure she should be able to attract a lot more men than just a cold and abusive CEO) to help her with her revenge? I mean, the CEO evidently doesn't care if she's beautiful anyway, so why does it matter?

                                    Edit: I found out why it matters...because the female lead is always an actress/model/high profile fashion designer. Doesn't explain why they always get cheated on and dumped by their first boyfriends/ex-fiances, though. Or why the CEOs always choose to marry actresses/models/designers when they always claim that they don't care about beauty and appearances.

                                    The problem with many webnovel authors is that they say one thing i.e. the hero is intelligent, and then have him do stupid stuff like pick fights with hoodlums or act recklessly (charge into danger head-on). Or they say he's handsome and give a long description about his blond hair and blue eyes and clean features (why does this matter to the story?) but the story is about fighting monsters (how come he has no scars then? And why should we care if he's handsome, it's not as if it helps him fight better). The same thing with jade skin beauties, but they live in a world where people fight to kill each other everyday and the strong eat the weak, and somehow none of the heroines have any scars. Oh, and the best one: The "brave" female lead who the author claims is not easily bullied, but somehow throughout the story she lets the CEO abuse her without fighting back. I'm not sure if that's info dump, but you're right, it's probably different from any of the tells you mentioned. Sorry!

                                        Tomoyuki

                                        You are talking about inconsistent character traits. It’s a huge/frustrating problem. In my mind this is something different from telling vs showing. Authors need to make a character trait sheet or something to make sure they aren’t writing crap characters to fix problems like this.

                                        Telling is stating things bluntly for the reader to read. Showing is creating a scene where the reader can infer information without being told directly. It is much more involved writing that basically puts an extra burden on the author to create a thought/feeling rather then telling the reader what to think/feel.

                                        I’m too lazy to make examples, but generally telling is very quick and lazy writing. Showing is usually more involved as the writer takes their readers through a scene to convey complex emotions. Information dumps (a form of telling) are usually very bad and boring.

                                        The biggest problem is that people typically put information dumps in the beginning of their story, so the first thing they do is list a bunch of “facts” about their story or fictional world that puts new readers to sleep. It would be better to start with some sort of exciting scene or action that shows what people in the world can do. Even if an info dump is required, putting it later in the story is better because you want your opening to be very catching. Then, you can explain the scene in more detail later or spread your information dump out over multiple scenes to make sure the readers understand how the world works. It’s why so many stories start with a scene and then have a flash back to explain it.

                                        Also, character descriptions have to be telling because you can’t really “show” physical traits that well. You can weave the physical description into some sort of action to break it up and not make it an information dump, but you can’t really “show” what a character looks like in writing.

                                        Basically, showing vs telling comes into play with how you manage information. Are you lazy and just throwing information at the reader, or are you taking the reader on an immersive journey where they learn about your world with a character?

                                            shadowdrake27 Oh, yeah. That's probably what I'm talking about, but I don't think making a character trait sheet works. In fact, I suspect these authors tend to throw all the traits they wrote in their character sheets into the descriptions, telling the readers how smart, strong, brave, handsome, etc. their characters are. Most of the traits are excessive and unnecessary - I think John Truby mentioned this in his book on how to write. Many authors make the mistake of adding as many traits to their characters as possible, but it doesn't give the characters depth. Instead, most of these traits are extravaneous. And pointless, given that the characters don't act like how their traits are supposed to be. Like in my examples, supposedly "smart" characters doing reckless things and getting into fights for no reason, or "brave" and "strong" heroines allowing their CEO husbands to abuse them.

                                            If I'm not mistaken, Truby actually suggests you create characters and their traits based on the story you're writing. It's more organic that way. What is your story about, and what are your character's goals? Design the traits and personality based on those. Is it a story about a young man trying to cross the Atlantic? Then he should be adventurous. How does he end up on a boat to the Atlantic? Was he escaping from debtors? Then make him cowardly, and maybe over the course of his journey he learns to brave dangers and becomes a courageous man. You don't need all the other unnecessary details like he's handsome, or he's smart (well, depends - does he use his intelligence during the journey? Or is there someone to guide him?), or he can juggle, or whatever. If they aren't relevant to the story, you can mostly leave them out. Because, quite frankly, no one cares if he can juggle unless it's somehow crucial to his survival across the Atlantic.

                                            So there's nothing wrong with telling readers about character descriptions. The issue is making them relevant to the story and consistent. Instead of telling us a character is brave or smart in the text, have a scene where the character does something brave or smart, otherwise it's just an empty and untrue description. Like, the protagonist jumps off a ship to rescue a drowning passenger. That says a lot more about his courage than a simple sentence of "Sam is a brave person." I honestly don't know if having a character trait sheet works, but I think it's simply better to stick to an outline of the story itself and let the character organically develop from there.

                                                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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