Rania Battany & Fleeting Moments

Please welcome Rania Battany to the blog today!

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Writing craft: Showing not telling.

We all know as writers that we need to show and not tell. If you struggle to understand the difference between the two, you can rest assured that you are not alone. Once it clicks, it seems simple. Until then, it can be daunting and confusing. 

Put simply, telling is exactly that: you are telling the reader how to feel and what to think. Telling usually uses fewer words and, to be blunt, requires less creativity. You are reporting the story to your reader, rather than trusting them to deduce the information for themselves.

Take the following example of telling vs showing

- Sally was happy.

- Sally’s eyes beamed. She smiled, and deep lines creased her cheeks.

Above, we are told that Sally is happy, but we do not feel any of her joy. In the below sentence, we are not specifically told how Sally is feeling, and yet we can gather from her beaming eyes and deep smile that she is happy.

Consider the following:

- John hurt Sally with his words.

- John’s words pierced Sally to her core. Her lips quivered, and her shoulders crumpled in towards her broken heart.

Not only can we feel how much John hurt Sally in the second example, but we become empathetic towards her, making us much more deeply invested in her pain. As authors, we want our readers to be invested in our characters. Showing allows the reader to paint the scene in their mind, encouraging them to come to conclusions for themselves. Showing also allows the reader to become a part of the experience. It takes them deeper into the character’s story, so that they feel what the character feels, see what they see, and experience what they experience. This deeper connection to the character enhances the reading journey and draws the reader into the world you’ve created.

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Rania Battany lives with her husband and three children in the beautiful Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia. When she isn’t getting her hands dirty in the garden, frolicking with her chickens or dog, or chasing after her three young children, she is writing contemporary romance novels that tug at the heartstrings or curled up with a cup of tea and a book.

Rania Battany on the web:

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Fleeting Moments

Maya is floundering. She’s stuck in a dead-end job, is isolated from family and friends, and her father—the only person that ever truly understood her—has been gone four years. When her boyfriend leaves her for another woman, the rocky foundations of Maya’s life crumble to dust, and she sinks even further into the pit of grief and despair.

Until she meets him. Sam. The one with the animated smile and gentle eyes, who always sees the positive no matter how bad the negative. And the one who reignites Maya’s passion through his enthusiasm and zest, helping to rebuild her life, piece by piece.

But when ghosts from Maya’s past resurface, her decisions almost destroy the few important relationships she has left, and the happiness she’s so recently found is threatened. She must overcome her demons and decide what matters most—the familiarity of the past, or the hope, love and possibilities of the future.

Buy on:

Amazon Kindle       Amazon Aust           Amazon UK

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Thanks, Rania! Beautiful cover for the book!

Those are great examples for showing rather than telling. How about you? Do you struggle to Show, not Tell? Do you like the round of editing where you search for those Tells and change them to Shows?