The never ending “show vs tell” debate came up again in one of my writing workshops. I’ve written about it before (in fact, it is still one of my most popular blogs). To keep the story short, it occurred to me that when to show vs. tell, or perhaps when to show AND tell is also partly a function of timing and characterization. This is because we have to train the reader and make sure general perceptions about what body language shows are precise for our specific and distinct characters.
In this example we discussed, the question was if saying “Frank clenched his jaw,” showed irritation. It quickly became apparent that different people — readers — perceive a clenched jaw as showing a variety of different things.
If the MC clenching his jaw is a habit that is consistent with when he is irritated, then we have to make this clear early in the story. Clenching one’s jaw could suggest several things, so we have to be precise regarding what a clenched jaw shows about Frank. For instance…
His son handed him his grade card. Frank looked at it, clenching his jaw. After ten seconds he said, “You know, Billy, I’m really irritated with you. We talked about your grades before. We even got you a tutor, but your grades have not gotten any better. You keep bragging about winning that stupid XBOX contest like that matters in life instead of spending more time on your school work, even helping around the house.”
…later in the story we can be more efficient and write…
After Billy left for school, Frank walked into his son’s room, his jaw clenching as he looked around.
…and we have a pretty good idea what Frank is feeling (and why).
I’m sure there are better examples, but the point is that though showing leverages our common knowledge, like all things in storytelling, it is just one tool. To make our characters more distinct we have to finetune (and quickly) how our characters are really distinct and how they show their distinctness so that as the story picks up speed, we can show and do it efficiently. We don’t want to have to explain during the climax that Frank clenches his jaw when he is irritated. As a reader, that would be irritating.
It’s a good point, Allen. It’s often occurred to me that physical reactions *underdetermine* the emotions they express. Getting red in the face might result from embarrassment, anger, desire, etc. Clenching one’s jaw might indicate anger, or determination. We need more than the bodily clues alone to know what a character is feeling — and the context, or the character’s history, help us get that needed boost.
Hey Rick! Thanks for the feedback. I suspect smart writers are more adept at ‘training’ their readers than is generally understood. In fact, the better they are at it the harder it is to detect. 🙂