Master One Rule Instantly Become A Better Writer

In today’s episode, we're diving into a key principle of screenwriting: SHOW DON’T TELL. This simple yet powerful rule can truly elevate your writing to new heights. These three words hold a lot of meaning—so what exactly does SHOW DON’T TELL mean? Join us as we explore this idea and share some great examples from well-known films and TV shows that beautifully illustrate this principle.

Executive Producer Kristin Overn

Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis

Producer Terry Sampson

Music by Ethan Stoller

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Transcript

0:12

Hello. My name is Sandy Adamidas, the social media director for the Page International Screenwriting Awards, and your host for The Writers Hangout, a podcast that celebrates the many stages of writing, from inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting the project made, and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey writers, it's Sandy. I'm coming to you from Studio City, the crown jewel of the San Fernando Valley, and home to the intersection of Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Boulevard. Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Boulevard once served as a trade path for indigenous communities, but is now ground zero for Erewhon and aggressive valet parking. To me, Coldwater and Ventura will always be where Twain's Restaurant stood, a cool diner where my writing partner and I would meet up at because she could smoke at the outdoor tables. Hey, I want to thank Robert Ward, one of our listeners, for sending me his excellent impression of John Houston playing Noah Cross in Chinatown. Just find the girl I love it. He also sent his Rod Sterling. Welcome to a most bizarre set of circumstances between music and community, where audio pleasure is diametrically opposed to simple noise. Traveling to a place, you'll find a most unique radio station located within the enigma of sunshine and marine layer, conjured from dimensions deep within the minds of greatly talented disc jockeys Thank you again, Robert, and thank you for letting me use these as drops for the show from here on. Just find the girl Okay, writers, time to get down to business. In today's episode, we're going to talk about a golden rule in screenwriting. Anyone wanna guess what the golden rule is? It's just three words: show, don't tell. What does show, don't tell mean? film and television are primarily visual media. Exposition-heavy talky scenes can slow the pacing. Showing invites the audience to use clues to infer what is happening, keeping them actively engaged in the story, rather than having characters directly state their feelings or explain the story to the audience through exposition. Writers, audience love to feel smart and ahead of the game while watching. It can be the difference between a reader experiencing a character's emotion and headspace and simply watching the events of a story as a spectator. As a writer, you really want to draw your audience in, and you don't always have to do it by dialogue. For example, here's a tell. you're writing, and you write interior, INT period, which stands for interior. It's placed at the beginning of a scene heading to tell the production crew and readers that the action takes place indoors. So we have interior exam room. And then what comes after that? The action line. Action lines describe what we physically see and hear. They are written in the present tense and should be clear and visual. Now, as a tell, you could say, "Marla is nervous waiting for the doctor. The doctor enters." Then we have dialogue and Marla says, "Doctor, I'm nervous for my test results." Okay, I mean, that's a perfectly fine little beginning for a scene, but that's all tell. Here's what I mean by show. We go back to interior exam room, and then we go to the action. Marla wipes her sweaty palms, tearing the thin tissue between her and the exam table. She glances at her clothes, neatly folded on a nearby chair, calculating whether she has time to dress and run away. The doctor enters. Now, as a writer, you don't have to waste any time on the dialogue saying how nervous Marla is. The doctor sees it, the audience sees it, and we can just jump into the scene. How about another example? This would be the tell. Interior lecture hall. Jim opens his laptop and turns to the student next to him. Jim, the dialogue, he says, I'm going to ace this exam." Now, this would be the show. Interior lecture hall. Jim slaps his blue book closed and gathers up his belongings. No one in the room looks up. They know the drill. Now, this is how you can think about show, don't tell when you're writing. Think of sensory details. Describe what your characters see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Sensory details are descriptive, concrete elements used to transport readers directly into the character's point of view. They transform flat sentences into an immersive living experience. Emily was scared. That would be the tell. Now, the show, Emily's throat burned with the coppery taste of fear and adrenaline. another thing to think about when you want to do show, not tell is show your character's internal state of mind. But how do you tell a reader what a character is thinking without directly telling them? Reveal their personality through actions and reactions. Again, action and behavior will tell your reader more about your character in a more engaging way than any direct exposition. the audience wants to clock things. They wanna think, "Oh, they're a smart ass," or, "They steal," or, "She loves herself too much." instead of stating Mary was happy, Describe the physical manifestations. Mary did a little dance with her feet as she wrote her name across the contract. Then, um, another thing to think about is vivid descriptions. Rather than telling the reader your character is planning on winning American Idol, show them watching old episodes of American Idol and taking notes. Here are some examples of film and TV shows using show, don't tell. Friends. Monica never said, "I'm a total neat freak. If you move a pillow, I'll know you did." The writers of Friends had Monica physically uncomfortable, like in season five, episode 22, the one with Joey's big break, where Rachel cleans the apartment and causes tension Show, don't tell. Next up, Up 2009, the opening montage. the first 10 minutes of this Pixar movie beautifully showcases silent visual storytelling at its finest. Instead of Carl narrating his life story, the film gently takes us through an emotional, touching montage that depicts his romance, marriage, and loss, all without a single word of dialogue. Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015. set in a post-apocalyptic world, Director George Miller respectfully treats the audience as intelligent, sharing the rich backstory of the Citadel, the War Boys, and that big guy's oppressive rule in a, uh, uh, a very natural visual way. Instead of there, you know, being a bunch of explanations about the water, the story just unfolds with all this imagery. I mean, imagery I still think about today. everything just felt very alive and engaging. Now, we just talked about this movie recently, and we got one of our drops from it now. Again, thank you, Robert. Chinatown. No other movie takes the show, don't tell principle to heart as Chinatown does. We follow Jake as he follows and snaps photos of a woman, puts, um, clocks under car wheels. Or was it a wristwatch? I can't remember. He steals a business card, Water's dumped into the ocean. I'm telling you, screenwriter Robert Towne relies heavily on visual information and character actions rather than exposition. He forced his audience to kinda just go along with Jack Nicholson, the protagonist. Writers, while show, don't tell is a helpful technique, it's also important, I wanna say this, it's, um, right to balance it with exposition. Too many descriptions can slow down your reader and make it feel heavy with details. Remember, it's all about finding that perfect balance, whether you're writing or eating, knowing when to show and when to tell to best share your story. And as I always say, And the more you write, the more you'll get better at it, so keep writing. You'll find your own voice and style. I'm going to end with one of my favorite quotes that sums up everything that we talked about. but before that, I want to say thank you, thank you so much for listening to the Writers Hang Out. If you feel like it, it would so help if you would give us a review, a good review, hopefully, and five stars where you listen to this podcast. I really appreciate you guys. I feel so lucky that I get to talk to you. I don't know what I would do without you, because otherwise, I would just be talking to my cat, Sophie Joe. Just find the girl Now, here's the quote: "Don't tell me, the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov, great writer and brother to Pavel, the great navigator and that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, Sandy Adamides, and myself, Terry Sampson. And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller. Alexa, you are gaslighting me,