Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by historical novelist João Cerqueira.

Show instead of tell – the literary mantra

When I started looking for publishers, literary agents and magazines to publish The Tragedy of Fidel Castro I discovered that the main advice given to authors – by other authors, critics, agents and editors – was: “show instead of tell”. For example, instead of writing “Maria is angry” (tell), write “Maria clenched her teeth and her fists” (show).

All well and good, I agree, when it comes to describing the emotions of the characters. But what about their ideas? How do you reveal what a character is thinking; his / her psychological complexity? For example, that they do not believe in life after death, or in the democratic system, or that they do not trust another character? One way would be through dialogue. But if this dialogue lasts more than ten pages, surely it would be tiring for the reader. And after all, couldn’t you say that this show is a disguised form of tell?

How, then, can you present ideas, invite the reader to reflect, or reveal information about the past of a character without resorting to tell?

I believe that Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust is a good example of how tell can be much more important than show. Throughout much of the oeuvre, Proust tells what happened, how the characters behaved and what he thought about them. There are several dialogues and we are also shown part of the character of figures such as the dubious Albertine, the pedantic Baron de Charlus and the reserved painter Elstir. But, essentially, tell prevails over show, especially when Proust rambles on about art, literature, music and theatre. The remembrance of the past and reflection need tell more than show. The show ends up lost in time.

In the case of the work of José Saramago, I think without resorting to tell it would not be possible to weave the complexity of his texts, in which the story, the characters’ thoughts and the reflections of an omniscient narrator constantly intersect. Reflecting on the human condition and the absurdity of existence, linking ideas together in long paragraphs that undermine the rules of punctuation, requires too much of literature that such a task be merely achieved with the use of show. There are limits to what the show can show – I’m telling you.

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Thank you, João.

You can also find out more about João and his writing via the following links…

João Cerqueira, who has a PhD in History of Art from the University of Oporto, has published a number of books in his home country of Portugal.

These include scholarly works on history and art – Art and Literature in the Spanish Civil War (published in Portugal and Brazil), a biography of the Portuguese queen, Maria Pia of Savoy, and three satirical novels: A Culpa é Destes Liberdades (Blame it on to much Freedom, 2007); A Tragédia de Fidel Castro (Saída de Emergência Edições, 2008) and Reflexões do Diabo (Devil’s Observations, 2010).

The second of these, translated here as The Tragedy of Fidel Castro, was voted book of the month and book of the year in 2009 by the literary magazine Os Meus Livros and selected for the BOTYA 2012 Finalists in Translation. Excerpts were published in the magazines, Contemporary Literary Review India, Danse Macabre, The Liberator Magazine, All Right Magazine, Literary Lunes, South Asia Mail, Sunday at6 and Toad Suck Review #2.

João’s website is joaocerqueira.com.