SHOW, DON’T TELL

1. SHOW, DON’TTELL Characters

3. List adjectives

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VA2Mt4O-Ns&feature=related

5. Which story is better?

6. Why? Telling Writing • Bores the reader by telling, advising, and judging. • Tells the reader what to think or how to feel. • Uses dull words such as bad, good, fun, cool, exciting. • Tells the events as a list.

7. Why? Showing Writing • Engages the reader through description of actions, movements, and • appearances. • Allows the reader to make his or her own conclusions about events • in the story. • Uses active words, adjectives, expressions, and adverbs. • Uses sensory words that describe sight, sound, taste, touch, and • smell. • Uses description and dialogue to guide the story.

8. Character Description Telling • Kevin felt sick. He had a fever and couldn’t sleep. Showing • “Some hours later, after midnight, Kevin wakes sweaty in his bed as the snow ticks against the window of his room. He has a fever, one that will last as long as this three-day storm, and he’s lightheaded, can’t make sense of the cracking, splitting sound of the wind through the woods behind the house.”

9. Examples

10. How? Try to include: • What were they doing? • What did they look like? • How did they feel?

11. Let’s Try Zero couldn’t read.

12. What was Zero doing? Zero sat on his bed with a letter clenched in his hand.

13. What did Zero look like? His face squinted at the words on the page as his eyes started to swell up with tears.

14. How did Zero feel? He felt frustrated and useless as he continued to glance at the gibberish on the page.

15. Zero couldn’t read. Zero sat on his bed with a letter clenched in his hand. His face squinted at the words on the page as his eyes started to swell up with tears. He felt frustrated and useless as he continued to glance at the gibberish on the page.

16. Your Turn! Stanley was a slow digger. Remember to use: • What was he doing? • What did he look like? • How did he feel?