As writers, we’ve heard it a dozen times or more: Show, Don’t Tell. It’s the premier advice for authors and screenwriters and deals with avoiding the use of excessive exposition in storytelling.
So it’s all about the action not the words. Or is it? Well, I’m not about to argue with sound advice or comments from editors and producers giving notes, because I do buy into the “Show, Don’t Tell” creed for the most part. And, yes, I have vivid examples of what not to do from an advanced screenwriting course I took at the University of Pennsylvania. It was at nighttime, and I’d race to Philadelphia after a full day of classes at the University of Delaware. All the students in at the UofPenn class had completed at least one script in draft form. Writers had to assign other classmates as characters to read aloud the first three pages of the script. New writers are told that development types and producers read the first three pages of a spec script and decide whether to read on. If nothing grabs them, the script gets tossed aside. So we were basing the merits of the scripts on those first three pages. Of course, we were all fledgling screenwriters and no one wanted to be too harsh with comments, especially since we all got our chance in the squirmy seat. So kindness ruled the remarks except for the instructor who basically told the truth, but knew how to do so without getting too personal. He represented the industry, and we respected his experience.
The script reading I recall most vividly was from a woman who adapted her book into a screenplay. She didn’t assign any character roles for reading aloud because the first three pages were all voice over basically lifted from her novel. We all had copies of the script pages, and we followed along as she read. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, she’s reading her book aloud! There’s no movie here. How could an audience relate?” The prose was beautiful, poetic, but I didn’t care. There was no movie behind it, and our instructor, in his kind yet exacting manner, pretty much made that clear!! But, she knew while reading it aloud that she’d taken the wrong approach to the story! You could hear it in her voice!! It wasn’t embarrassment, but more like enlightenment with the harshness of twenty pairs of ears and eyes hearing and reading along. If nothing else, it showed us how important a reading is to get a reality check on a script. Can you see the movie? Is the dialogue inventive or on the nose? Are the characters on a journey?
During the same time period, I saw the movie “Pulp Fiction” the sensation from writer/director, Quentin Tarantino. At first, I disliked the film, because I thought it was going against everything I had learned. Too much dialogue and monologue…long stretches of both that seemed meaningless. It seemed like a series of mini-plays or vignettes that told an incoherent story. I thought Mr. Tarantino was enamored by his words and broke the Show, Don’t Tell rule. As a writer, I was confused, thinking if I wrote a script with long stretches of monologues, the pages would end up in some round file for anyone bothering to read it.
Needless to say, REM continues to (and could always be) unknown to several, nonetheless the insufficient this particular stage generally affect individuals with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and also signs and symptoms lowest cost of viagra of male menopause. Availability: The medicine is easily obtainable cheap cialis pills through an internet-based pharmacy. Another devensec.com sildenafil discount important aspect is that the assessments must be meaningful-it is not possible for everyone to hear. viagra 5mg uk In short, he loses all his happiness, confidence and self-esteem.So anyone who has seen any Quentin Tarantino film knows he appears to be breaking the rule of “Show, Don’t Tell.” (Note: Please tell me you’ve seen at least one Tarantino film if not more!!) In “Pulp Fiction” the two killers, Vincent and Jules, played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, are engaged in a diatribe about a Royale with Cheese, in what you might believe is mindless prattle about cheeseburgers.
But there’s a huge difference in what Mr. Tarantino accomplishes with these segments throughout the film. He’s not doing exposition which delves into backstory. He creating characters and, most of all, he’s entertaining us, his audience. He creates characters with dialogue and underpins it with so many themes and story reveals that you don’t notice at first. Yes, he’s a mastermind and I’ve learned lots from him, even if I could never tell a story like he does! Then there’s the monologue about the “gold watch” which I believe could serve as an audition piece in either film or stage. The gold watch becomes central to the storyline in “Pulp Fiction” and clocks in at nearly four minutes of screen time and that’s a lot of script space!!!
So here’s my takeaway about “Show, Don’t Tell” and I’ll also sprinkle in some advice from Robert McKee since I attended one of his three-day seminars in New York City years ago. Don’t use voice over if you can show the story!! Mr. McKee railed against the use of voice over as sheer laziness in storytelling. But, I think that’s a harsh diagnosis, so use it if it works, but don’t rely on it, like pages from your book, unless you’re telling a documentary. Also, if you do use long stretches of monologue, make it character driven and tell something riveting so the audience wants to lean in a little closer to hear it! Keep the audience engaged in the story within a story, and “show” the exposition! But most importantly, be entertaining!!! Don’t bore your audience. Read your script aloud with the eyes and ears of audience members! But first, let the best story emerge from multiple drafts! Happy writing!