Young Writers Society

Many times I've been told that you have to SHOW the audience your incidents, rather than TELL or narrate them, or sum them up. With children's fiction, the language is often simpler and more straightforward; everything is less eloquent and more pared down, so to speak.

So, how much should you show and how much should you tell?

You still show just as much, just do it in a little less detail. Most of the time, all you really need to do is not use simple language but just get rid of that really difficult vocabulary. Very often, I find, the right language will come to you if you have the characters right.

Agreed with above - use simpler vocabulary, don't spend time on long and complex descriptions which woud only bore the child.