: Re: Should you "Show, Don't Tell" when your character is recounting events? "Show, don't tell" is a popular ethos amongst writers, and one that is very important to writing engaging stories. However,

@Cofer669

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I might offer some more to this question in light of the existing answers. Lana needs to notice the actions which leads to her suspicion of guilt. Showing these actions to both her and the reader will accomplish the goal.

It's the actions that speak loud to her in her realisation. Also, your sentence is a bit long and feels like it has too many stops and starts. The paragraph has a few separable points of interest so here's my take:

John was puffing out his chest, all hot under the collar and not doing anything in particular to exonerate himself, when Lana noticed Terrence move into John's shadow. His face flushed with emotion and he became somewhat nervous, only stealing glances at John and not looking directly at him. She realised he must have felt guilty for what he had done.

I have an example from one of my own short stories which may help:

Jake turned turn off the ignition, the car engine stopped and he braced for an onslaught from his father, whom he didn’t dare to look back at.

How much of this action can you extrapolate into understanding of the actual story being written? The actions in this one sentence tell a lot. Jake had probably been driving his dad's car, likely without permission, and felt stupendously guilty about it.

As a social and emotional species, a lot of what we do says much of what we don't want to say.

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