How to show instead of tell in fiction
What telling looks like
Telling names a feeling or a trait: she was terrified, he was greedy, the village was poor. It is not wrong. It is fast, and it is useful for transitions and facts the reader only needs to know.
It becomes a problem when it replaces a scene the reader should feel. A line that says terrified gives the reader a label. A line that shows Lin Mei counting her steps gives them a reason to be afraid with her.
Four ways to show
The generator tries a different approach in each version so you can compare them.
- Action: what the character does with their hands, feet and eyes.
- The room: details in the setting that carry the mood.
- A small habit: a specific behaviour that belongs to this character.
- Dialogue: what they say, and what they avoid saying.
Know when to tell
A serial moves fast. Telling a three-year time skip in one line is better than showing it, and summarising a minor character’s background keeps the chapter on the main scene.
Show the moments your reader came for: the first fight, the reveal, the goodbye. Tell the rest.
Review each rewrite against your original
The rewrites are proposals. Read each one beside your passage, keep the lines that work in your voice and discard the rest. Check that no fact changed and that nothing was added that your story does not support.
In Webnovels AI, Bao keeps character and setting records beside your chapters and asks before changing them, which helps you check a rewrite against what is already canon.