: Re: Is straight-up writing someone's opinions telling? When I first learned about the "show don't tell" guideline, I believe it applied to everything. I have now learned there are many grey areas,

@Annie587

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As you say yourself, "show don't tell" is a guideline and not an absolute rule.

I write computer software for a living. (Sadly, I make way too little money writing to live on.) I've had many occasions in the software business where someone will tell me that something I did is wrong because it violates some rule they read in a book about how to write software. And we often end up having a conversation that goes like this:

Me: "Yes, that's a good general rule, but in this case it causes all sorts of problems."

Pedant: "No, you don't understand. It's a rule. It says so right in this book."

Me: "I don't doubt that someone wrote it in a book. And in general it's a good rule. But in this particular case, there are circumstances that make it so it causes more problems that it solves." I may give specifics at this point.

Pedant: "But it's the rule. See, look, here's the book. It's right there on page 192. That's the rule."

Etc., until I either give up and ignore him or, if he's my boss, I sigh and do it his way.

If my point is not clear (because I'm trying to show rather than tell :-), just because somebody wrote a rule in a book doesn't make it absolute and unquestionable. Unless the person who wrote it is God or someone who has the power to penalize you for breaking it.

Same thing here. Frankly, as rules go, "show don't tell" is one I'd take very non-commitally.

This case is a great example. You can easily write, "Reino respected his confidence." It's short and to the point. The reader likely gets the point immediately. It's clear and unambiguous.

How would you "show" this? How would you describe Reino's behavior in a way that makes it clear that he respects Visa because of his confidence? You could write, "Reino looked at Visa with a look that showed respect." But that's still "telling". You didn't describe the look, you just said it showed respect. You could have Visa say something and Reino indicates that he accepts his words, when previously he had disputed everything Visa said, but this would add a potentially long conversation and not necessarily be clear.

Maybe a sufficiently creative writer could come up with some way to present this that made it clear. But I wouldn't even bother thinking about it. The obvious solution is to just say it. Unless there was some problem with that solution, I don't see any reason to bang your head against the wall trying to come up with a hard way to accomplish something when you already know an easy way just to conform to some "rule".

Now if there was some reason why you DON'T want to make it immediately obvious to the reader that Reino now respects Visa, that's different. Then you don't want to flat out say it, but give clues and let the reader figure it out. Or if this was some crucial plot point and you don't want it just revealed in one sentence, but you need a build up. Etc.

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