Show Don’t Tell Screenwriting

“Show Don’t Tell” is a basic writing tip that is nonetheless an essential part of successful screenwriting. This simple rule can help you decide what makes sense for the script and what doesn’t. Instead of telling your reader about a character, show them, by what the character does. In a novel it’s okay to write what the character is thinking, what happened to them in their childhood, and why they are acting a certain way. In a screenplay, you are limited to what we can see and hear on screen, making background information, internal thoughts and feelings inappropriate.  If you tell us that “Sarah feels happy,” how will we see that this is true? Better to write that “Sarah smiles and walks with a bounce in her step.” This shows us Sarah is happy.

The same is true when describing a location. Show us what each new place looks like by providing key visual details. Instead of saying “the building is old,” describe the peeling paint, neglected lawn, and broken windows.  Because screenwriting must be terse, it is a constant struggle to find the perfect words and the most visual and important details to use in your script.

It is particularly difficult to make this distinction when writing for film, because you are using a “telling” medium, the written word, to define what will eventually be a “showing” medium, a film. Writing that is meant to only be read-novels, short stories, articles, etc.-can rely on telling because there will always be someone reading the written word. Writing that is not meant to be seen-screenplays and stage plays-need to provide details that show both the reader and the future potential viewer what is happening regardless of whether they are reading the written word or watching those words coming to life on screen.