Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition



20Show, Don't Tell

I sense I'm being watched. Followed. Stalked, almost.

He's quiet as a ninja. And like a ninja, he seems everywhere at once.

Often I sense him before I see him. I think I've entered a room alone but then turn suddenly, and—yep—there he is: his silhouette in the doorway, backlit by the yellow hallway light. “Oh, hey. You good? Just keeping an eye on you.”

It would be a little creepy, except for … well, look at him.

Let's start with his legs. They're six inches long—too short to scale all the stairs to the second floor without needing a nap. He stops on the landing and cries.

He might be part ninja. But at that moment he looks and sounds more like an oversized Beanie Baby outfitted with a doll's voice chip.

* * *

There's a meme on TikTok: Tell me without telling me.

• Tell me you've from the Midwest without telling me you're from the Midwest.
• Tell me how your brain malfunctions without telling me how your brain malfunctions.
• Tell me you have a pandemic puppy without telling me you have a pandemic puppy.

The point is to dramatize, to drop an insider-y clue. To show, not tell.

• Tell me without telling me you're from the Midwest: When a trip to run an errand is “only” 15 hours.
• Tell me without telling me how your brain malfunctions: When we watch someone make an egg for breakfast and he slips the shell onto a preheated pan and drops the egg into the trash. (#facepalm)
• Tell me without telling me you have a pandemic puppy: Well … I opened ...