Show, Don't Tell

Unless, of course, you are Lampshading it for laughs.

This is a writing or directorial choice that involves the use of character behav
ior, rather than blatant or thinly-veiled narration, to establish narrative elem
ents.
For example, say Alice is a Badass:
To show that Alice is a badass, she would spend the entire book doing indisputab
ly badass things. More pertinently, the book would go into detail: for instance,
the work could begin with a Batman Cold Open where she takes on six mooks witho
ut breaking a sweat. In these circumstances, we don't have to be told she's bada
ss; we can see it for ourselves.
To tell that she is a badass, the narrator, Alice herself and/or other character
s around her would merely state that fact. For instance, they might report on pr
evious incidents that have happened in the past and/or "offscreen" while the oth
er characters were busy. Or maybe there'll be no support for the statement whats
oever, but that's unlikely ("Hey, did you hear about the badass things Alice did
the other day?" "No, I didn't." "Well, they sure were badass!" *crickets*). In
particularly egregious works, the narrator may state that Alice is a badass, eve
n going so far as to include list of badass things she did, and then never menti
on it again orGod forbidapply her badassery in a scene or two.
If you're using a story structure or Point of View that doesn't include a narrat
or (such as limited third-person, in which you only see into the head of one cha
racter), showing is a far better idea, if only because having a narrator suddenl
y show up just to tell this stuff would break the reader's Willing Suspension of
Disbelief. It's even more important in a visual medium, since people don't tend
to say precisely what they're thinking or how they feel about it for a hypothet
ical audience's benefit; watching two characters discuss the details of somethin
g they both already know rather than making economical use of a flashback to whe
n one or both didn't know is extremely poor storytelling.
This also relates to sentence-by-sentence writing decisions that have more to do
with an author's language and word choice than anything else. In general, somet
hing happens in every sentence written. Is the author merely stating those event
s, or describing them? "Alice was angry and upset over Bob's death" is the telli
ng version of "Alice's heart raced as her husband slumped to the floor, blood gu
shing from his throat." One of these two sentences has slightly more dramatic po
wer, and it's for reasons of impact that showing is generally advocated over tel
ling.
Now this line is sometimes quoted as an absolute gospel truth, which is not real
ly true. It's certainly a good habit to get into (particularly in character writ
ing; nobody likes being told what they're supposed to think of someone), but it'
s not an ironclad rule, and knowing when to break it to quickly explain minor de
tails is a major aspect of learning to write. One of the best times to Tell some
thing instead of Show it is when you want to summarize a long period of timethe w
ritten equivalent of a Time Passes Montage. Some times, one might Show so much t
hat it becomes Too Much Information.
An extension of the concept in interactive media like Video Games is "play, don'
t show." Rather than the player being told that the Dragon Lord killed your ninj
a clan and dishonored you by defeating you in a duel or being shown a movie sequ
ence, the player is allowed to act out the journey to the Doomed Hometown and fi
ght a Hopeless Boss Fight against the far more powerful foe prior to the game pr
oper.
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Children Are Innocent

Victorian-era Europeans are the direct inspiration of a dominant view of childre
n, inspired by the New Testament and stretching to the present day. In this view
, there is a sharp transition between innocent child and little adult. The conve
ntional age Western culture assigns to this tradition has grown over the years.
The meme, however, remains: a young child is a Blank Slate not yet sullied by th
e evils of the world. Only upon coming of age does the child lose this innocence
.
The Children Are Innocent trope captures the idea that children are never natura
lly evil. A consequence is that harming one is the ultimate evil act, no matter
how provoked unless that is forcing others to harm them. This is an extremely pe
rvasive trope that is at the heart of many other tropes, such as Friend To All C
hildren, Harmful to Minors and Dead Little Sister, and often motivates Papa Wolf
and Mama Bear. When the Big Bad kills nameless hundreds, the heroes will say th
e villan killed women and children. The Children Are Innocent trope is old enoug
h that it is difficult to assign it an age; but certainly it goes back to the Ne
w Testament.
Expect those who buy into this trope to hold that any villain character Used to
Be a Sweet Kid until something bad happened to them, especially if they also bel
ieve that Rousseau Was Right. (Also keeping in mind that some view puberty as a
Start of Darkness in its own right, and take much the same view of any worldly e
xperience.)
Off-stage children almost always fall under this trope; the subversions all requ
ire some development, and being informed that a character has killed, injured, e
xploited, etc. children is always a mark of evil without such development. See E
mpathy Doll Shot. Indeed, one of the commonest ways to subvert Always Chaotic Ev
il is to bring up their children, as in the Genocide Dilemma.
Where blond hair is found naturally, children are often depicted with Hair of Go
ld, Heart of Gold. Indeed, this trope is considered to drive that one: because c
hildren (and the young) are more likely to have blond hair than older people, bl
ond hair is a sign of innocence.
Part and parcel of this is depicting children as the other meaning of innocent:
naive, guillible, and altogether too trusting. They can misunderstand anything o
ther than the most obvious. They can commit offenses unwittingly and face a Bewi
ldering Punishment. On the other hand, this very quality can lead to their being
Too Dumb to Fool.
Frequently children Cannot Tell a Lie, because they are too innocent to think of
suppressing the truth. Children who do start to lie often show this is new to t
hem by being momentually Bad Liars.
Standard for an Innocent Prodigy. Often comes into play for A Child Shall Lead T
hem. Generally does for Constantly Curious and Curious as a Monkey.
Spoiled Brats may subvert this. On the other hand, if the causes of the spoiling
are clearly identified, and the children revert to innocence when they are remo
ved, the children may still be innocent.
Even when the child is doing wrong as in the Mouthy Kid, the Bratty Half-Pint, a
nd Kids Are Cruel it is often regarded as not as wrong as when an adult does it,
because children have to learn empathy, and not to be self-centered, and also o
ften have a poor grasp of consequences of their actions. On the other hand, this
often leads to Ambiguous Innocence.

The Creepy Child, the Enfante Terrible, and Corruption by a Minor, on the other
hand, draw much of their force from their knowingness. They understand as much,
if not more, than the adults about them, which contradicts not only this trope b
ut the general understanding of children.
This gets thrown right out the window in a Teenage Wasteland, though the forced
loss of innocence may be a major theme. Ironically, it is reinforced by a Childl
ess Dystopia, what with how miserable things generally become without them.
There are also subversions that portray children not so much as evil but as capa
ble of counter-tropical insight. Subtrope for Children Are Special.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creepy Child
They look sweet, innocent, even angelic, but there's something not quite right a
bout them. They're too calm, too knowing. They aren't really children any longer
, not at heart.
Children should be innocent, in need of adult protection. By inverting this, the
trope arouses deep-rooted fears. The Creepy Child might not be physically dange
rous, but their profound unnaturalness is just as chilling.
Creepy children are frequently female, and often Emotionless Girls. They can be,
among other things, a Robot Girl, an Oracular Urchin, a changeling, a Waif Prop
het, a Strange Girl, or Evil. As prophets, they emanate otherworldliness; as her
oes, they may elicit distrust and contempt from the rest of the team sans the on
e female who wants to be surrogate mother, and as villains they remain cute even
while the bodies pile up around them. They usually have an Ironic Nursery Tune
theme.
May be holding a Creepy Doll. A girl who is a Woman in White is usually the Cree
py Child. If a Creepy Child is shown drawing, it will usually be a Nightmare Fue
l Coloring Book.
Compare and contrast Psychopathic Manchild and the usually much more proactive a
nd physically dangerous Enfant Terrible. See also Undead Child and Ambiguous Inn
ocence. Also compare Creepy Cute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creepy Doll
Dolls are perceived as harmless, and they can be gorgeous and/or adorable, but t
here's still something scary about dolls. It's probably because many of them fit
squarely in Uncanny Valley territory. The blank gaze and unmoving stare reminds
us too much viscerally of corpses, perhaps. This goes even more when the doll i
s damaged in some way, such as missing limbs or eyes, or having holes in its hea
d.
Another way to do it is make it a clockwork toy (usually an organ-grinder's monk
ey with cymbals); something that moves on its own when someone winds the key, th
en not have it wound up for years, and have it click its cymbals in a haunted, m
echanical rendition of Terrible Ticking.
In horror, dolls are often used as part of the scenery to help establish the moo

d, even providing a theme for The Doll Episode. They may even be the antagonist
or be used by the antagonist. Despite how ridiculous a doll trying to kill peopl
e should be, it's still seen as quite frightening. A similar idea lies behind th
e Demonic Dummy and Scary Scarecrows.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Loves Me Not
He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me. . .
A character plucks something in order to predict something.
The character is usually a girl, but doesn't have to be.
This trope comes in two flavors:
Standard: the character plucks petals from a flower usually a daisy in order to
determine whether or not a certain someone loves him or her.
Variations:
It's not a flower (but maybe it looks like one... or maybe not).
The options are not "loves me" and "loves me not", but something else.
Since this process should result in an even chance between "yes" and "no", and t
here's no mysticism implicit in whether a flower has even or odd petals, a pragm
atic person could make the same kind of prediction in a lot less time by flippin
g a coin. But predicting love by flipping a coin would be not as romantic.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Snow Means Death
There are many ideas associated with snow: Tranquility, purity, cleanliness, bea
uty...
So naturally, many people are shown dramatically dying in the snow. It may have
something to do with how red blood contrasts so sharply with white snow, especia
lly when gentle snowflakes are falling around a scene of carnage. It may have so
mething to do with the way the snow seems to try and wash away the unclean corps
es and ruins. It may have something to do with how it looks like a beautiful and
peaceful way to die, just letting the cold embrace you as you fall to sleep. It
may have something to do with how snow melts on living bodies, but coats those
that have passed on.
And then there's the symbolism.
As beautiful as snow is, it also signifies winter, associated with the death of
the year (in the northern hemisphere at least), the death of crops, and the deat
h of the sun. Snow also covers the world with a blanket of white, and in Eastern
cultures, white is the color of death (as it was untill few hundred years ago i
n Slavic states aswell).
Whatever the reason, using snow is a great way to portray a character on the ver
ge of dying or a place torn by war in a very artful manner.
A sub-trope of Empathic Environment. For a different interpretation of snow, see
Snow Means Love. See White Shirt of Death and Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress fo
r a similar trope, only applied to clothing instead. May or may not be related t
o Grim Up North.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creative Sterility

What Measure Is A Non Super? We can't fly, we can't shoot fireballs out of our n
ostrils, and we live pitifully short lives. Those Sufficiently Advanced Aliens,
vampires, or cyber-humans are so far above us in every respect we should just ac
cept them as a Benevolent Alien Invasion. And yet every non-human and supernatur
al creepy crawly without its head up its butt envies us and wants to be like us.
Why?
Because we can create.
Despite our flaws, Humans Are Special for some reason, and only an unaltered hum
an body, soul or mind has the unique ability to create life* , art, and science
(or work some kinds of magic) that supernaturals seem to lack. For some reason C
ybernetics Eat Your Soul, vampirism drains your humanity, or being soulless mean
s you're dead inside. Oh sure, a vampire scientist might make great discoveries,
but all of them will be of the Science Is Bad variety whether he likes it or no
t.
A robot can't paint or write a sonnet, and even Elves can't seem to make anythin
g that has a deeper meaning behind the generic beauty they're so good at. For so
me reason a non-human's work is stale, at best a repetition of more creative, em
otive, and insightful peers.
This can be an overt or subtle cue that we're dealing with beings that are Not E
ven Human. Depending on how it's played in context, it can be used as a negative
trait to balance out a race much superior to humans, which does not make them a
ny better or worse than us, just different. It can also lead to Cultural Posturi
ng on the part of the humans, as the page quote shows, or in more extreme cases
serve as an excuse to feel indifferent towards killing them. After all, anything
incapable of creative endeavors can't be human, and is therefore fine to kill.
This can have interesting ramifications in a plot. They might seek to become hum
an by learning to feel or even transforming themselves physically, hoping The Mi
nd Is a Plaything of the Body which will allow them to understand us. It may be
cultural: enough exposure to humanity may well "cure" them, though any of them w
ho resist this change and want to stay uncreative are likely to be Obviously Evi
l. It can also lead to more frightening efforts at stealing that which they lack
from uswhether it is in the form of "Creative Energy", souls, wombs, or slaves.
In this case Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, and their sterility is self-perpetuati
ng.
If (when) anyone brings up that average humans can be biologically sterile or ha
ve little to no "artistic talent" the normal response is either: they get ignore
d, point that in comparison humans produce over hundreds of millions of works wh
ile the race total work is 0, or point that this is because humans are, in compa
rison to other races, total wackos. After all, anyone who had visited Myspace or
Free Journal can attest the insane... "imagination" of the average Joe/Jane.
An interesting thought to consider for readers is that it is an author who is as
signing this trait to the aliens, robots, vampires, or whathaveyou, even if it's
only by thoughtless, reflexive imitation of other works. So in a sense, they ar
e cursing these creatures with something any artist would consider a Fate Worse
than Death.
A common variant outside of the development of artificially or supernaturally pr
olonged life concerns the differences between men and woman, in which it will be
observed that, in going through pregnancy and giving birth, a woman is capable
of creating life perhaps the ultimate form and union of both creativity and fert
ility whereas a man can not.
It is often suggested that men are thus capable only of destroying, not creating
, as a way of attempting to compensate for this lack of creativity. This is ofte

n used as a way of arguing or justifying why women are inherently better than me
n, although it can also be used to indicate that the woman in question making th
is argument is a deluded Straw Feminist capable only of seeing the worst in men.
Furthermore, while men do not actually carry the baby, they do in fact play a f
airly important role in conception... something which is rarely mentioned either
way.
Compare Medieval Stasis, where elves, aliens, demons and other immortal races fa
r older than humans typically have technology comparable or only slightly more a
dvanced than humans. The most common explanations given, if any are, is either t
hat the other species is creatively stagnant or that they've hit an upper techno
logical limit and it's impossible to advance farther (The Singularity notwithsta
nding). If an entire race has stagnated culturally, they may become a Dying Race
- or the fact that they are dying may be the cause of the stagnation. Contrast
Deaf Composer, who can still (probably) create despite lacking a necessary sense
, and Grew Beyond Their Programming, when a robot evolves free will.
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