How Do We Know When to Show vs Tell?

A well-told story is a combination of showing and telling. As readers, we want to experience the story through the main character’s eyes, but we don’t want to get bogged down in details we don’t care about. After all, it’s much easier to skim through to find the more interesting bits. But we also don’t want to be told why something is happening. We want to see it happen. Showing and telling both have their place in a story. So, how do we know which to use?

3 Tips to Writing Third Person Internal Dialogue

If we want our readers to form an emotional connection with our main character, they must be able to get into their heads. They need to experience their reactions, feelings, and thoughts about their surroundings and the events around them.