The dumbest writing rule I’ve ever heard is “show don’t tell.”

Every single great writer has “told” things up until 30 years ago, when MFA programs collectively decided that our attention spans are too short for telling.

Take a look at the opening of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. 

There is zero showing. We are “told” every single detail about Robert Cohn. That’s not to say you can’t show—of course you can—but I’m tired of the insistence in the literary community that every book must read like a screenplay.

There is room for both. Let’s bring back telling.