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Appreciation post: I keep seeing writers use 'show, don't tell' to mean every single detail needs a full scene, which can really drag a story down.
My writing group in Seattle argued for 20 minutes over a simple 'he was angry' line last week, missing that sometimes you just need to keep the plot moving, so when do you think it's actually okay to just 'tell' something quickly?
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xenaroberts6mo ago
Honestly, tell when the feeling isn't the main point of the scene.
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mason.brian6mo ago
Honestly" is a weird place to start because feeling is always the point. If a scene doesn't make you feel something, it's just empty words on a page. Even an info dump needs to build a mood or create tension to work. So the feeling is the main point every single time.
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sarah_hart5mo ago
How many times have we all been there? My group got stuck on a line like that too, and @mason.brian is right, the feeling is the whole point. If the feeling is already clear, just tell it and move on.
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