Show, don't tell
Also known as show not tell
A craft rule: dramatize meaning through action, image, and behavior instead of labeling emotions or themes in dialogue or description. Telling has a place — just not as a shortcut past drama.
In practice
Showing means the audience infers the state from what people do and what the camera can see: a hand that will not let go of a key, a laugh that dies too fast. Telling names the state outright — "She is devastated" — and asks the reader to take your word. Film is inference-friendly; labels steal the discovery that makes a moment land.
The rule is a bias, not a ban. Sometimes a character must state a fact under pressure, or a SUPER must date a jump. The failure mode is using dialogue as a caption track for feelings the scene already staged — or never staged. If you deleted the label and nothing visual remained, you told without showing.
In rewrites, hunt adjectives in action and on-the-nose feelings in speeches. Replace "he is nervous" with business that proves it. Keep theme off the soapbox; let the midpoint and the plant-and-payoff pattern argue the idea through events. Rooms forgive clarity; they punish lectures that stop the scene's fight.
Common questions
Does show-don't-tell ban all explanatory dialogue?
No. Characters can say true things under pressure. The problem is dialogue that only captions feelings or themes the scene should dramatize.
How do I show an emotion in action lines?
Pick observable behavior — pace, stillness, a ruined smile — instead of naming the emotion. If the camera cannot see it, rethink the line.
Is voice-over always telling?
Not always. Voice-over tells when it only labels. It can still show attitude, irony, or withheld truth that complicates what we see.
When is telling the right call?
When a clean fact must land fast and dramatizing it would stall the story — a date SUPER, a verdict, a rule stated as a weapon in an argument.