Show-don’t-tell is a mantra for early writers, the training wheels on the bike, the interior wax holding up a bronze sculpture. But. “The real goal of ‘show, don’t tell’ is to force a discipline that encourages the writer to see subjectivity emerging through those details. But that sentence—that command—doesn’t say that. It’s saying specifically don’t tell. And we need to just stop saying it to another generation of writers.” – Literary Hub