Quote:
Originally Posted by latepaul
I agree show is (usually) better than tell. I don't agree show is necessarily much longer.
In crich70's examples the show version is much longer but it's also got a lot more info in it. You could equally write a tell version with all that detail and it would also be long.
The real question is how much of that information is needed at that point. There's a lot in that show passage that tells us what kind of man John is - he drinks whiskey not beer, he pours from a decanter, the swear words he chooses and so on. Near the beginning of the book, or after John has just been introduced this is useful info. As part of an ending it's superfluous. We should already know John by that stage.
Now maybe that's just because crich70 was thinking more of show v tell than endings when constructing his example, nevertheless my point is that the "information" in the ending should be that which is needed to satisfyingly wrap up the story and no more.
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I do agree that it can depend on many things as to how much detail is needed. I mean if John is shown to be angry and next thing you know the police come calling because 'she' has been found dead then it would be important. In truth I just used that example to point out that cutting things to bare details can lose a lot of information. I think it can also jar the reader out of the story prematurely (even if near the end). I also think that it is possible to cut a story down to bare facts so much that it is almost unreadable. Traditionally that meant it would most likely be rejected by a publishing house but now with Amazon and Smashwords (to name just two places) anyone can publish anything without stopping to have someone look it over to see if the tale is at its best. Some people over do showing granted, but some also overdo just telling, and as has been noted here in this thread there needs to be a balance. In some stories that may mean a longer ending than in another story. I don't know about others here at MR but when I pick up a fiction book I do so to be entertained and having too rapid fire a closing can feel like I'm a guest at the author's dinner table and am being quickly rushed out the door for some reason after the meal.