A Demonstration of “Show, Don’t Tell” with Emily Carroll’s “His Face All Red”

June 18th, 2012

One of the keys behind good writing is “show, don’t tell.” The difference between “showing” and “telling” itself can be hard to tell, but it creates the difference between engaging storytelling and mechanical plot description.

Implied action and emotion can go a long way. Saying, “It was very scary” will let the reader know on a conscious level that the situation is scary. But to describe the details of the scary situation lets the reader fill in the gaps themselves with their own imagination. This strikes the reader at an emotional, rather than intellectual, level.

To demonstrate this, I’d like to present Emily Carroll’s excellent short comic, “His Face All Red”. I’d recommend you read it (which takes 5 minutes) on her website before continuing with this post.

“His Face All Red” by Emily Carroll

While a format comic does make “show, don’t tell” easier to do since it doesn’t entirely rely on text, The following text has spoilers, so read the comic before continuing.

My interpretation of the story.
My personal interpretation is that the “brother” that comes out of the woods is the beast, as a shape-shifted doppelganger. (The beast was not “just a wolf”.) You can tell because the author uses the exact phrase “(most strange things do)” when describing the beast and describing the brother that comes out of the woods. (Or, perhaps, the beast was just a wolf, but the doppelganger discovers the brother when he is dropped into his hole.)

In the end, the real brother survived the shot and fall into the pit. The protagonist is given a second chance to make a decision: rescue his brother to expose the doppelganger (but admit he tried to kill his brother), or re-decide to kill his brother, make up a story, and then show his body (which would also expose the doppelganger.)

He has to do something because it seems the doppelganger intends to kill the protagonist, who is the only other person in the village who knows the truth. The doppelganger is digging a hole possibly so that another doppelganger can replace him as well.

The theme of the story being, given the chance to remake a decision you regret, would you actually choose anything different?

“His Face All Red” uses a lot of showing and only a little telling. Let’s look at each panel individually.

The panels show the isolation and lack of popularity of the protagonist. This is cemented by the line “This man is not my brother.” which emphasizes the lack of relationship (while at the same time implying that the man should be his brother). The story does not tell, “My brother is more popular than I am.” or “This man is an imposter.”

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