Telling or Showing Characters

I started writing less than a year ago. Because a friend has been very supportive and given me guidance in latter months, I can see that I have improved. But I'm puzzled as to how I should show a character's personality as opposed to just writing and telling the reader about it. I'm uncertain that I've explained myself properly, and will just have to wait and see if I get any feedback.

Forever the optimist, thanks in advance.

Ahhh yes the show don't tell argument, or vice versa. It's really hard to know which is better. I think if you continue to write what you're comfortable with you'll find a method that fits what you do. There's also the matter of what may work for one story, doesn't work for another. I've employed the method of starting a story towards the end or partway through a few times, and it's worked really well, but there's other stories I've done that this method simply wouldn't work for. You can show a characters personality through their actions, facial expressions, the words they use, the way they are physically described. I wish I could find some examples that could convey to you what I mean, but at present I'm fresh out. Even a character's name can convey to the reader a host of things about that character.

You can use a combination. What he/she says, their body language, facial expressions. Be brief with purely expository background, but use other characters' perceptions. What do they see? How do they react? That can tell a lot in few words.

Here's telling.
Jenna was really excited to get her big raise. She danced a happy dance as the news sank in.

Here's showing:
"I got a raise! I got a raise!" Jenna squealed with joy. "I can't believe it! I got a raise!"
Jenna's jump for joy turned into a dance, one that took her around her living room. As she danced Jenna kept chanting "I got a raise! I got a raise!" until she finally collapsed into a heap of giggles.


I normally show who a character is by dialogue, actions, adjectives, and adverbs. Any form of descriptor helps as you try to have the character discribe itself to the reader.
Which of these say more about Jenna?
"I got a raise!" Jenna said.
"I got a raise!" Jenna squealed.
"I got a raise!" Jenna squealed with joy.

Obviously, the last one.

Goodgulf

Show
This is excellent, Rollin and great advice for you Miss Naughty. As you feel more comforatble using this strategy, you'll notice your pieces wil grow longer. It takes more words to show. but most readers enjoy the puzzle of figuring out a character, You can also reveal characters through cutaways, switch to another scene and let the character recall a memory and recap her reaction,i.e., the time her father used his belt when she was caught shoplifting or the actions of a principal when it was revealed she bullied a new student. In your mind, decide what your character will represent- morality, self serving, just... and those memories or behaviors or conversations she has with others allow your reader to understand.
Islandcarol

Use the show technique selectively or as others have pointed out you'll find yourself writing a lot of epics. It's really only important for major characters. If a character jumps into a cab, you don't need to spend a full page giving us an idea of the cabbie's character, especially if he isn't going to appear again in the story. Just say the cabbie was a fat, balding man with a heavy Brooklyn accent or something to that effect and move on.

The most difficult things I find to "show and not tell" are the characters' thoughts and internal monologues, particularly when these things happen in an instant and they don't actually do anything during that time.

I usually try to use metaphor; for example when I say "Jeannie felt an ice block of resistance form within her stomach" as her husband ushers her out of the door to the party this comes over as pretentious.

Sometimes one can indulge in self mockery but this only really works with a certain self awareness that this is fiction and the reader has to not mind the bubble being broken.

"...the butterflies in her stomach were replaced by chickens...the chickens flapped away as eagles took their place..."

And I've actually used both of those examples.

Nineteenth century British literature employs, with some restraint, two out-of-fashion constructions: passive voice, and tells. And as we all know literature reached its peak in 19th Century UK (In much the same was as music reached its peak in 18th century Germany/Austria). I don't worry too much, as a beginning writer myself, about either of these "faults". Over time, I find I use them less and less. But even if I still overuse them whatcha gonna do? Spank me?

Hi, Miss Naughty. As with many other things, practice doesn't make perfect, but it sure as hell makes better.

Think about how YOU perceive someone's character. You do it by what they do - their words, their facial expressions and other body language and their other deeds. What do you conclude about someone who snaps at you when you accidentally make slight contact with them in a crowd? About someone who takes your call at some large public agency and then rings you back minutes later because she was concerned you might have misunderstood something? About someone who was in a war and goes on about it endlessly - or never talks about it at all? About a child who reacts to an obstacle by trying to bulldoze the obstacle out of the way, by pleading with an adult to help, or by sitting down and planning what to do? What do you conclude about someone who enters a crowded room and recoils slightly - or marches forward confidently?

You can describe these things and they're revealing. Words, of course, tell a huge amount but not necessarily what the speaker thinks. Consider the boaster, the snide underminer of other people's reputations, the type who never says more than is strictly necessary, the type who deflects questions about feelings or values into discussion of technicalities.

If you can't convey what you want directly, see the character through someone else's eyes. "Trevor thought the woman was superbly arrogant. She marched to the bar and clearly expected to be served immediately, tapping her feet in frustration as she waited. As he rose, she glanced at him and seemed to look straight through him." This also, of course, tells us something about Trevor.

I suggest avoiding first person narration for the time being ("I'd been driving for three hours" as opposed to "Nicola had been driving..."). It takes a particular skill to convey the narrator's character through their own narration. But in using third person, always ask yourself through whose eyes you're seeing it: "The doorman watched the immaculate Rolls Royce draw up smoothly outside the entrance. A tall bottle blonde in furs got out with a quick flash of leg." Note that the doorman might well be interested in the car, the clothes and the legs, but wouldn't be estimating just how tall she was or bothering with the colour of her belt.

I though music reached its peak in the 60's. Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Stones ...............