Lesson #1 – Emotion Telling

In this lesson, you will learn the differences between showing and telling and why showing will add depth and emotion to your novel. You will also learn how to identify one of the most noxious forms of telling: emotion telling.

Lesson #2 – Body Language

In this lesson, you will learn how to use body language in your writing to eliminate telling and make your characters come alive!

Lesson #3 – Mood-setting Descriptions

In this lesson, you will learn how to create the perfect setting for any scene and how setting descriptions have an often-overlooked power to be one of the most effective emotion-building techniques in the writer’s toolbox.

Lesson #4 – Sensations

In this lesson, you will learn the difference between internal and external sensations and how they can both be used to show your characters’ emotions in powerful ways.

Lesson #1 – Overview Telling

In this lesson, you will learn how overviews sap life out of stories and how to spot overview telling in your own writing. You will also learn how to overcome overview telling.

Lesson #2 – Live Scenes

In this lesson, you will come to grasp on a deep level exactly how to write a live scene (the opposite of overview telling).

Lesson #3 – Point Of View Telling

In this lesson, you will learn how easy it is to use your character’s point of view (aka their internal monologue) as a platform for telling. This is one of the worst plagues in modern literature, but you are going to learn how to avoid it and use your character’s point of view as a platform for showing instead.

Lesson #4 – Moralist Telling

In this lesson, you will learn how to spot when you are using telling to make a moral or philosophical point.

Lesson #5 – A Crash Course In Theme

In this lesson, you will learn all the fundamentals of theme. This will help you write powerful stories that convict, probe, and inspire, all the while entertaining your reader. With these tools, you will no longer have to rely on the unproductive and unartistic technique of moralist telling.

Lesson #6 – Generalization Telling

In this lesson, you will learn how generalization can creep into your writing in many ways and how this damages your prose. You will also learn how to combat this with solid details that bring your story to life.

Lesson #7 – Import Telling

In this lesson, you will learn how to avoid using telling to convey to your reader the import or significance of any detail in your story and how to use showing instead.

Lesson #1 – How, not What

In this lesson, you’ll explore the core of show don’t tell. The principle of “how, not what” will help showing become intuitive for you. It will also give you a deeper appreciation for the rest of this course.

Lesson #2 – Reaction and Interaction

Pick any story, and you’ll see it’s composed largely of reactions and interaction. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use these tools appropriately to create a maximum emotional experience for your reader. You’ll also learn how poor reactions can spoil dramatic scenes and how to avoid that.

Lesson #3 – How Show Don’t Tell Varies Between Deep 3rd, 1st Person, and Omniscient Point of Views

If you’ve ever wondered if the rules of show don’t tell are flexible, this lesson is for you. It turns out that show don’t tell applies differently to different kinds of stories, but there are important guidelines you need to follow to do it right.

Lesson #4 – Two Pitfalls with Body Language

Body language is one of the best ways authors can show and not tell. But watch out! Not all body language is created equal! In this lesson, you’ll learn what to watch out for.

Lesson #5 – The Contrast Principle

Contrast has the superpower of doubling your efforts to create a moving, emotional scene. In this lesson, you’ll cut past the guess work and learn exactly what it takes to suffuse your story with contrast.

Lesson #6 – Attention Correlates to Importance

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to write subtle, but engaging prose.

Lesson #7 – Diversity — It’s Only Natural

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to balance the many techniques taught in this course in a natural, smooth manner.

Lesson #8 – Using the Pathetic to be Dramatic

Be done with melodrama forever after taking this lesson. It turns out, a simple psychological trick can cure your over the top scenes, and add oomph wherever it’s needed. Take your story’s drama to the next level.

Lesson #9 – Showing Through Juxtaposition

Chances are, you’ve never heard of this trick before. Juxtaposition is an odd concept, but it nevertheless works extremely well to convey character motivation, moral messages, and all sorts of other information that’s normally quite hard to get across without telling.

Lesson #10 – Symbolism

This lesson uncovers the mystical subject of symbolism and explains it in easy-to-understand terms. You’ll learn how to easily invent symbols whenever you need them, how to use symbols to strengthen your theme, and how to use symbols to improve characterization.

Lesson #11 – A Few Final Lessons

In this last lesson of The Show Don’t Tell Course, I briefly overview a few more show don’t tell concepts I wasn’t able to get to due to time. While they’re only teasers, they’ll give you enough information to go and study them on your own.