3 ms·

I always considered as something that applies to filmmakers more than writers. Sure you could through natural storytelling demonstrate that a hobbit hole is com

I always considered as something that applies to filmmakers more than writers. Sure you could through natural storytelling demonstrate that a hobbit hole is comfortable place to live Or you could use your greatest strength as a writer and just tell me "Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

vidarh 7y ago
I think this demonstrates the opposite of what you want. Saying "a hobbit hole is comfortable" would be telling. It's not explaining or showing what makes it comfortable, or why it is comfortable - it's one abstraction up and just declares it comfortable. For what we know at that point in the story, a hobbit likes worms and oozy smells and finds that comfortable. But instead he evokes those images, and gets you to imagine something different; something probably closer to our idea of comfort, because the reader now has seen that hobbits ideas of what isn't comfortable is at least somewhat aligned with ours even though the live in a hole. I'd consider this a fantastic example of how to show without having to be boring and prescriptive about just describing what you might see, but how you can also show through creating emotional response and through exclusion. That said, good writers will know when to break the rule and tell. Tolkien certainly does tell a lot even if I don't agree that is an example of him telling. A lot more than many, if anything. But of course he gets away with that because he was a fantastic writer. The advice to show is beginner advice more than anything.