• Home
  • About Me
  • Privacy Policy
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

My World Their Way

Screen free Activities & Ideas for Families | Hands on Learning Activities for kids

  • My World Their Way
  • At Home Learning
    • Math
    • Literacy
    • Science
    • STEM
  • Kids Activities
    • Art and Craft
    • Games
  • Books
    • Books for Kids
  • Parenting
  • PRINTABLES
    • Coloring Pages

Show Don’t Tell – Creative Writing

Recently, my kids have started a daily writing practice where they write a personal narrative of their choice and improvise it the following day, if needed. Generally, their first draft come out very straightforward – where they ”tell” the story, the settings and the character. Revisiting what they have written helps them “show” the character’s emotions, traits and settings wherever needed. I have noticed that this approach of show, don’t tell is fostering a style of creative writing in them which is much more immersive for the reader. For example, instead of telling “Max felt proud” they can show it by writing “Max smiled big and wide and stood there nice and tall with his chin held high.” which is more expressive.

In a cohesive story, a balance of telling and showing illustrate the point and are equally important for a pleasant reading experience. You don’t want your story to have unwanted immersive details when you can get to the point directly. For example, sometimes we need to know how the character got from A to B . Yet we don’t necessarily need to have every minute detail. That is where we need to tell the story. Whereas, if we want to describe the traits of the character, for example, if the character in the story is friendly then we can mention on how the character looked forward to meeting his friends over the weekend to play golf, instead of saying a boring sentence like “he is friendly”. This is where we need to show the story.

Let’s take an example from the book “The Big Idea Gang Worst Mascot Ever”.

Here, the writer shows how the character Lizzy is feeling nervous without labeling the emotion.

How to explain Show Don’t Tell Creative Writing

Telling is more straightforward and factual with no emotional effect on the reader. In fact, telling is necessary at the beginning of the story to set a scene or when transitioning between settings where certain details just need to be clearly stated.

For example,

“He woke up and glanced at his clock, he was running late for his office. Scurring through the busy streets, he grabbed his coffee on the way only to arrive fifteen minutes late”.

Perhaps the reader doesn’t need so much details, so this sentence can be rewritten as

“That day, he had scurried for office but arrived few minutes late.”

In the above example, the telling simplifies, moving the story along quickly to the next piece of information and creates a better narrative flow than showing.

Showing, on the other hand, is dramatizing. It conveys detailed imagery to readers which enables them to immerse in the story, visualizing and relating to the characters and their feelings. It is more visceral and can make the character more real and developed because the story is showing their experience.

For example.

” He got angry”

Perhaps, we can express the character emotion more visually so that the reader can feel how the character feels, so this sentence can be rewritten as

“He kicked and screamed. He want to smash the world to smithereens.”

Here, showing enables the reader to think and imagine the character’s action.

How to Show

  • Using strong details ( Provide enough information to support your statement )
  • Creating the setting ( If the story takes place in winter use statements like a cold breeze, snow covered trees …. )
  • By not labeling the emotions. ( Don’t say the character was sad, happy, mad ..)

Ideas for “Showing” emotions dramatically

Have your kids jot down all kinds of emotions with different expressions and actions the author is portraying when they are reading a book. Over time they would have a list of ideas to reflect back while doing their writing. I have created some printouts of descriptive sentences to use for different emotions for my kids.

Show Don't tell creative writing - Nervous emotion

I am a mom and don’t have a degree in creative writing so I had to read a lot of articles on “show don’t tell” form of writing before introducing it to my kids. Over the time, I am seeing an improvement in their writing and that’s why I decided to share it with my readers. I have found that this activity is perfect for kids in grade 4th and above and is a good start for 3rd graders creative writing.

To get your kids started with creative writing, I have created some descriptive emotion cards, feel free to download them and plese consider following my blog or like my facebook page to stay updated.

Download the Descriptive Emotions card for reference here

Since, you are here, check out some of my latest posts.

  • Free PRINTABLE 4th of July Coloring Pages
  • 10 Tips for Raising Self Motivated Kids
  • HOW DOES A STRAW WORKs | AIR PRESSURE
  • WHY DO DOOR KNOBS FEEL COLD | THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
  • EARTH DAY QUIZ

Happy Writing !

Pin it for later

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin28
28 Shares
«
»

Literacy 0

Subscribe

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Get connected

Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates on all our latest product releases, sales, and some free goodies!

Hooked On Phonics

Search all of my posts

Categories

Our Privacy Policy

  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • FREE PRINTABLES
  • My account
  • Shop
  • Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.

Footer

About the Designer

Follow on Instagram

As a math lover, all I see is a #fibonacci pattern As a math lover, all I see is a #fibonacci pattern in the spirals of Romanesco Broccoli. Math is everywhere around us. Love the variety of vegetables and fruits offered at #saratogafarmersmarket
🔸 WHY DOES A BALLOON AMPLIFY SOUND 🔸 When y 🔸 WHY DOES A BALLOON AMPLIFY SOUND 🔸

When you think of speakers, loud sounds are typically the first thing that comes to mind. Speakers have amplifiers built in to make sounds louder. But did you know that a balloon may also be used as an amplifier to boost the volume?

Find out how in this science experiment for kids! 

https://myworldtheirway.com/2022/01/balloon-amplifier/

#scienceexperimentsforkids #kidsactivities
🧩 NEW YEAR MATH PUZZLES 🧩 Put your math ski 🧩 NEW YEAR MATH PUZZLES 🧩

Put your math skills to the test with some fun new year’s activities. We've got puzzles and exercises to get you in the spirit for celebrating the holidays and kicking off the new year right by exercising your brain.

https://myworldtheirway.com/2022/01/new-year-2022-math-puzzles/

#newyear #puzzles #kidsactivities
🔸 LOGIC PUZZLE - FORK IN THE ROAD 🔸 A logic 🔸 LOGIC PUZZLE - FORK IN THE ROAD 🔸

A logician went on vacation to an island. There were two different tribes that lived on the island. One tribe always told the truth and one tribe always lied. When he reaches to a fork in the road, he must ask a local person which way to go to reach the village. The logician has no way of knowing if the person is telling the truth or lying. He pause for a bit, then asks only one question. He knows which path to take based on the response.

What question does he ask?

Let us know your answer in the comments or find out the answer here 

https://myworldtheirway.com/2021/12/fork-in-the-road-logic-puzzle/

  #puzzle #logicalpuzzle #kidsactivities
🧩 Rebus Puzzle 🧩 If you like riddles or lo 🧩 Rebus Puzzle 🧩 

If you like riddles or logic problems, then you’ll love these fun picture puzzles and their creative answers ! 

Grab the free printable on the blog www.Myworldtheirway.com

#puzzle #rebus #kidsactivities
🎄 Christmas Words Rebus Puzzle 🎄 This holi 🎄 Christmas Words Rebus Puzzle 🎄 

This holiday season I gave my kids these rebus puzzles to solve and they had so much fun 
while it gave me some time to finish up the task on hand.. grab the printable on the blog.

#puzzle #rebus #christmas
Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas ! # Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas !  #christmas #xmas
Do you need some STEM scavenger hunt ideas ? Then Do you need some STEM scavenger hunt ideas ? Then create a scavenger hunt to get your kids interested in learning more about the how things work in this hands on learning approach. #stem #scavengerhunt #kidsactivities
A day spent outdoor is the perfect day to unwind a A day spent outdoor is the perfect day to unwind and enjoy nature. Scavenger hunts themed around Nature are a fun ways for kids to learn about the world around them. They can go on a nature scavenger hunts in their own backyards or go on adventure quest to a park nearby,  so it’s never too early  or too late to start exploring. Grab the FREE printable on the blog . Link in bio #scavengerhunt #outdooractivities #kidsactivities
Follow on Instagram

Subscribe for Updates

Copyright © 2022 · Darling Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in