“Show, Don’t Tell” isn’t just good writing advice:

It’s life advice

Photo by Wexor Tmg on Unsplash

This turtle might seem completely irrelevant to this article — which may be true — but for now, I’m using it as an effigy for the sage advice:

Show, don’t tell.

I don’t think there’s a single writer on Medium who doesn’t know this advice. I don’t think there’s a single person in my generation who hasn’t had this lesson beaten into their brains by English teachers since about Year 3.

It is a piece of advice that is both excellent and ubiquitous.

Whether we can apply it or not — well that’s a different story. I try my best to improve my writing, but it’s a long term goal. And like the turtle — or was it the tortoise — I’m not in a rush to become a great writer.

Slow and steady wins the race.

The inspiration for this article actually came from a personal interior design project. It had to be done in a short time span — about 3 days — and involved a lot of heavy lifting and hard work. My family didn’t think I could do it.

But I did.

And what I realised was that I wasn’t able to convince anyone by telling them about my vision — I had to show them.