Show - Don't Tell

I have been in a few writing classes over the years and done creative writing, however over and over the latest statement is "show-don't tell.  Now as simple as that may sound, it still can be a little odd to very literal folks.  After all, isn't it pretty much what your doing when you write?  Your telling a story?

Like most things in life that are creative, finding a new way of saying something that hasn't already been said or done is not easy.  I have to wonder if the collective consciousness Carl Jung talked about wasn't spot on.  

As an artist, I have learned over the years, once I put it into words, either spoken or written, my good idea will show up somewhere.  I remember my father saying the same thing.  He was a young man at the time from the Eastern shore of Nova Scotia.  Population?  Crazy low.  He came up with the idea of pre-making roof trusses.  You know, those things if you look up at the top of a house being built, the sloped part that all these identical frames that look like pointed ribs of a whale!  

Well, not long after he thought of that idea, a company started making them not far from him!  Is it a case of which came first?  His idea or that company?  Same with vertical blinds.  He thought of them, then found them in the Sears catalogue. Again, did he cheat?  Nope, I don't think so.  I just have noticed this happens a lot to me and maybe you.  It still amazes me to see who makes it first to the finish line and get the patent! lol

So I digress (hence ramblings!) however the concept of "show - don't tell" has already been been written and explained about in a really great manner quite recently.  I shall enclose the link of a woman named Mellisa Donovan she can explain it great however perhaps you want the short version and don't want to take the time to read yet another blog in which case I will use a quote she used which pretty much sums it up!  After that I shall put her blog link.

​www.writingforward.com/writing-tips/show-dont-tell