Show not tell

There is a growing debate within writing circles about what has become known as ‘show and tell’.
No, this is not about small children excitedly showing scabby things found on the beach to their classmates, rather an important writing technique.
The argument goes like this: for you to truly engage your reader, you must dispense with reported action (tell) and make them feel that they are there when the action is actually happening (show).
As I have developed my own writing, I have focused more and more on that theme because in some of my early work, I had a tendency to distance the reader from the action by telling them what had happened instead of allowing it to unfold in front of their eyes. Now, I hope that the reader feels part of what is happening.
And it matters because if you fail to draw your reader into the story, your tale will lack something, an immediacy, a sense of drama, a sense of narrative.
How do you do it? I think it comes back an image that I use time and time again when I teach creative writing classes: reach out a hand to your reader and say ‘come into my world, walk alongside me, let’s discover together.’ Do that and they are hooked.

John Dean