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As the Adage Goes: Show Vs. Tell

Send in your prompts!

Here is an exercise in showing versus telling. Write a flash fiction prompt consisting of approximately ten sentences. Each of these sentences purpose is to show something. Do not tell your readers anything, give them a vision and allow them to determine your character’s feelings and the plot line.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

I stood on the back porch. There was nobody home.

This sentence doesn’t tell us that the narrator is alone, it shows us that. The fact that the narrator is on the back porch indicates that they have either went through the house looking for someone or they walked around to the back door to see if they could get in.

The key is, the writer didn’t tell you that. They let you see it. They let you feel what the narrator is feeling by introducing a universal element. Really, who hasn’t gone somewhere expecting to see that nothing has changed and found no one was there. It’s like they say, you can never go home.

So Where Did That Sentence Come From?

Maybe this will ring a bell:

Well I went back to Ohio,
but my family was gone.
I stood on the back porch.
There was nobody home.
I was stunned and amazed.
My childhood memories
slowly swirled past
like the wind through the trees.

You got it, The Pretenders. This song is full of telling sentences. Have a listen, then get to work on that comments section.

Good Luck!

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