Getting Closer to Understanding Show, Don't Tell

I had an epiphany the other day while watching a program on TV.

A character said of another character, "She was a troublemaker."

Hmm.

Not only was there a "was" in the spoken sentence (a word I've written a previous post about here, saying it should be avoided wherever possible), but I saw the trick to eliminating it, and how showing could do the job. 

"She was a troublemaker" is a lame sentence.  It tells us something, for sure, but not much.  It shows us nothing about how she was a troublemaker.  What she did for someone to call her that.

So, specifically, what did she do?  (This is where, as writers, we need to go to work, do our jobs.)

Well, she liked to poke her nose in other people's business.

She fabricated stories about them. 

She gossiped, telling as many people as she could what she'd made up. 

You get the idea.

So, instead of saying, "She was a troublemaker," we could write something like:  "She poked her nose in other people's business, fabricated stories about them, and gossiped to whoever would listen."  From that, readers should figure out she was a troublemaker. 

"Was" is removed as the verb in the original sentence.  It's replaced with such such vivid action words as "poked," "fabricated," and "gossiped."  As a reader, wouldn't you rather read words like these than "was"?  Wouldn't your experience of that story be more interesting and rewarding? 

Often, when we use the word was, we're telling the reader something.  We're not involving the reader at all.  We're just dropping information.  And that makes the experience of the story passive for the reader–a far less rewarding experience.  

And when should we show and not tell?

This can be tricky, but, the more I look into it and experiment in my own writing, the more it makes sense.

Some things should be told.  Things that are mostly minor details that are needed for clarification.  That is, if the reader didn't know them, he might not get what you really want him to know.

But when significant things happen to your character, things that change the story for him, those should be shown.

For example, in the novel I'm working on now, Character 1 wants Character 2 badly.  1 thinks 2 is single, lonely, and available, just like he is.  Turns out 2 is actually in a relationship already, but the relationship is not going well, and 2 and 3 have decided to take some time away from each other to see what happens.

In my original draft, I covered all this material in a couple of narrative paragraphs.  But I told it instead of showed it.  That 2 is already in a relationship is significant for 1, so I realized I needed to show it, through dialogue, through how 1 and 2 react to each other during that dialogue.  When I changed it, I saw how much, as a writer, I was drawn into what happened.  And, if I was drawn in, I knew the reader would be too.