And Then and Then and Then...

And then I suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth! And then I came back. And then I complained about school and whatnot to some friends who kindly listened to me. And then...wait, are you falling asleep? That's not a very polite thing to do when somebody's telling you a story.

And yet, that is exactly what we all tend to do when somebody tells a story. Any good writer knows how, whether consciously or subconsciously, to show a story. Heck, any reader knows how to tell between a story that is told and a story that is shown - mainly because told stories are boring. From this comes the Golden Rule of writers:

Show, Don't Tell.

This is one of the most basic fundamentals of story telling, and yet, it is often the one that many people miss. I'm sure you all either remember being a kid who tells stories with "and then"s the whole way through, or have at least seen a kid who did this.

(You all? What am I, Texan? A Texan with a northern accent?)

When an author shows, rather than tells, the story, it is much more vibrant to the reader. For example:

The rain was cold.

This is not nearly as effective, or image-inducing (no, you aren't supposed to slip hallucinatory drugs to your readers...just supposed to make them think you did) as:

The rain froze my skin.

Or:

I shivered, my body protesting the icy fingers that slid down my neck.

The second one here also uses personification, which is a way to create relatable, vivid imagery for your reader. (There are other tricks for this too, and I'll have another blog post on them some other time.)

As an author, it is your job to put me into your story so I can see it for my own eyes. I don't want a second hand account, seen through your eyes, I want to see it for myself. As a reader, you demand this from an author. Show, don't tell, and not only will your story be much more interesting, but everyone will be happy. :)