It's Not a Movie

"Show, Don't Tell" is a horrible maxim for experienced writers.

We are storytellers, not storyshow-ers.

My tales are not movies. Even if they were, they darn well better "tell" you a story, not show you one.

I believe/hope it was Boris Karloff who eschewed the term "Horror Movie" when referring to his many chilling films, and much preferred the more accurate "Tale of Terror." Even in acting on edited film, Karloff viewed his portrayals as tales first.

I'm not exactly sure why, if a master of English language cinema thought chiefly of his work as tale-telling, we writers should be so obsessed with "showing."

Tell me a good story, and I'll show you a good time.