Show, Don’t Tell

We hear it all the time as writers. For those who are reading this post that aren’t writers, let me explain. Show, don’t tell is when you’re writing a about a character, instead of telling us things about the character like “He was mad,” you’d say something to the affect of “He swiftly picked up the video game console and threw it at his brand new, flat-screen tv. Then, he stormed out of the room using language only a sailor would use.”

I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate how easily this transfers over to real life. First we must make clear that in this life, we, as in ourselves, are the only characters that we get to create. We cannot write someone else’s story for them. There’s far too many variables. But what we can do, is create our own character within our own story. Now to the part I appreciate.

We can, as our own creators, instead of telling the world that we are compassionate, show the world that we care about the well-being of those around us. I love this. A lot of us do this already. I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate it.

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”

Kahlil Gibran