Perhaps you have come across 'show not tell' or 'show, don't tell' because of your teachers. Perhaps you were given a piece of writing and your teachers asked you to complete it using the techniques of 'show not tell'.
What is 'show not tell'?
Show not tell is useful when you are writing a descriptive passage. Without show not tell, your passage will be tedious.
Look at the examples below.
'It is raining heavily.'
Don't you think the sentence is dull? We use 'show not tell' to make it more descriptive. We should show our readers instead of telling them. In the example above, 'raining heavily' tells the readers about the situation directly. You can try to make the sentence more interesting to the readers.
The following paragraph has applied 'show not tell':
'It is raining. People on the road are soaked with water, but the rain doesn't seem to give that in. The rain is on cloud nine and invites the wind to help him blow more parts of itself to the tiny people. Battered and exhausted, the people quickly take out their umbrellas to avoid getting wet, but in vain.'
The above paragraph is not written well enough, but it used the method of 'show not tell'. It makes the piece of writing more interesting.
Now you know how to use 'show not tell'. Try to use it next time in your writing. I am sure you will get a higher mark when writing your creative writing!