Show Readers Your Story

Eva Barrows • May 28, 2025

One of the many goals of storytelling is to place readers into a world they can imagine for themselves. This is where the writing advice, “Show Don’t Tell,” comes into play.


Showing in writing expands and highlights what is important to the story experience. You may decide to “tell” when information is not vital to understanding the story or would take readers out of the current scene.


For instance, one of your characters may be a tall person. You wouldn’t want to waste space describing their height if it’s not crucial to the story. A telling sketch outlining the basics of what someone looks like can be enough.


But, sometimes, details are too subjective and not specific enough to create similar imagery in the minds of your readers. If being tall means your character has to stoop to get through doorways, you need to show this. For this character, being tall impacts their life and should be emphasized for readers.


Some of the things “showing” accomplishes include revealing:

  • What the setting and characters look like
  • What is unique about your characters
  • The feelings your characters experience

—all with the hopes of placing readers into your story.


The good thing about writing is that you don’t have to capture all of this in the first go-round. Writing is an iterative process spanning the conception of an idea, transferring what’s in your mind onto paper, and piecing together a rough draft that sparks early feedback, all leading to a solid first draft.


As you work through these layers, you’ll be concerned with capturing different story aspects. During the first iteration, you might concentrate on capturing the plot: what happens in the story. Once the basic structure of your story appears, start thinking about how to best immerse readers into the world you’ve created. Ask yourself if readers can envision what you intend them to experience from what appears on the page.


During the revision stage, focus on bringing character motivation alive through dynamic, visible reactions and interactions. Identify opportunities to describe sensory and visual details to show rather than tell what’s happening in your story.


Discover how to infuse your writing with sensory details to put readers in your stories in this Ask an Editor session I co-hosted with Copy Editor Lila LaBine.