Jan 4, 2015 / Advanced

“The glint of light on broken glass”

Inspiration on how to show, not tell.

Not only did Chekhov dispense great writing advice, he was a sharp dresser, too.

Not only did Chekhov dispense great writing advice, he was a snappy dresser, too.

In college, my writing professors shared a constant refrain: “show, don’t tell.” I had a hard time grasping this nuance of writerly advice until I discovered a quote by Anton Chekhov — a Russian physician considered to be one of the greatest short story writers of all time:

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
–Anton Chekhov

For me, reading this quote made “showing” “click.” Not only does showing make writing far more interesting to read, it’s free of that boring clunkiness — that perceptible weight telling hangs on innocent passages of text that make them drag for the reader.

Often these “showing” parts make you swoon and sweep you off your feet. Consider this passage from one of my favorite novels of all-time: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, a master of showing detail.

Here’s how Proulx describes Petal Bear, the main character’s abusive, philandering wife:

Grey eyes close together, curly hair the color of oak. The fluorescent light made her as pale as candle wax. Her eyelids gleamed with some dusky unguent. A metallic thread in her rose sweater…While she remained a curious equation that attracted many mathematicians.

The dusky unguent, that metallic sweater thread signifying “tacky.” The skin palor that cannotes someone almost unhuman. The curious number of “mathematicians” attracted to her as though she was an equation. All these incredible details paint a clear picture in your mind and these pieces scream: floozie.

When you’re working on your writing projects this year — no matter whether you write poetry, fiction, or nonfiction — remember Anton Chekhov’s light glinting off broken glass. Write well!

Show Comments

104 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

  4. I am always trying to show and not tell when I write, to put my readers right there in the action of stories and making them feel things. This will be my New Years goal- to stop telling and start showing.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Thanks. This is exactly what I need to improve my writing. I tend to not have enough “meat” in my writing, the descriptive, vivid sensory details that make it more interesting.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Oh how I remember “show don’t tell” from high school AP English. It would drive me crazy. Absolutely wonderful quote and application. What a great reminder for my writing today!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I do think there are exceptions though. In my memoir, I must tell, tell, tell certain things- the mood, the gut wrenching fear, the control. Of course I still show some things, such as the broken glass, but I also must tell.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I was constantly reminded of this during the last year while I was enrolled in a Creative Writing Program through Humber College in Toronto.
    I had/have a habit of telling the reader about my characters and what they think, but I didn’t explain why they think what they do. After rereading and trying to take a step back, I realized all the information I knew about my characters wasn’t written anywhere in the story. A reader would not be able to make a leap in knowing my characters because I didn’t give them any help.
    Adding in everything I needed to made the story flow much better and made it far more understandable for a reader.
    It definitively changed my story for the better.

    Like

  24. This is a great piece of advice. It’s so simply put it’s almost hard to NOT understand. Now about the pesky problem of implementing it in my writing….

    Like

  28. Details are important, but I feel that communicating the underlying truth is even more important. When I read the Chekhov quote, the details didn’t subsume the truth that was being communicated. However, the second quote was just too much. It is possible that the writer could include even more detail, but all that would do is cloud the truth they are trying to share.

    Like