"Show Don’t Tell" debunked episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 24, 2025 · 50 MIN

"Show Don’t Tell" debunked

from Write Your Heart Out · host Kayla Ogden & Rachel Cyr

This week we go full craft-nerd. Kayla shares how adding interiority (yes, telling!) is transforming Pillow Forts Down, and we break down the long-misunderstood “show, don’t tell” rule—from Chekhov to Hemingway’s iceberg theory—and land on a modern balance: show and tell. We walk through quick edit tools (for every scene: desire, fear, misbelief), why character expectations create delicious reversals, and how to build emotional dynamic change in scenes (with detours through Little Women adaptations, Friends, and a murderous “Gertrude” example).Rachel celebrates an Honorable Mention from Reader’s Digest for “Extra Scoop of Revenge,” we read our Two Sentences entries, and Kayla talks printing the manuscript and aiming at Book Pipeline. Next week: Storytime (Scott & MJ’s “switcheroo” poems + Blair’s pieces).Send us your short fiction or poems to be featured—and please rate, review, and, as the YouTubers say, smash that subscribe button.Please subscribe, rate and review! New episodes every other Wednesday.E-mail us your short story at [email protected] us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 24, 2025

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This week we go full craft-nerd. Kayla shares how adding interiority (yes, telling!) is transforming Pillow Forts Down, and we break down the long-misunderstood “show, don’t tell” rule—from Chekhov to Hemingway’s iceberg theory—and land on a modern balance: show and tell. We walk through quick edit tools (for every scene: desire, fear, misbelief), why character expectations create delicious reversals, and how to build emotional dynamic change in scenes (with detours through Little Women adapt...

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"Show Don’t Tell" debunked

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This episode was published on September 24, 2025.

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