I’ve written more than two dozen thrillers and detective novels, some have gotten all kinds of hot damn reviews, others possibly weren’t as good. But never mind. One of the most important things to remember in writing fiction is the show-tell rule. Don’t tell the reader that a character is funny, intelligent, a dim-bulb, or angry. Have the character do things that are funny, smart, stupid, or pissed-off. Barack Obama doesn’t say, “I am even-tempered, classy, elegant, thoughtful, intelligent, considerate and et cetera.” He does things that are even-tempered, elegant, thoughtful, intelligent, and considerate. He keeps his mouth shut and lets us judge him by what he does.

John McCain’s problem is he tells us repeatedly that he’s a maverick, or that he puts his country ahead of himself, or that he’s honorable. Then he repeats the same old Repuke party-line crappola and cultural war nonsense. A movie director on Huffpost has written a little script saying essentially the same thing. Instead of announcing that he was going to Washington to save the country from financial disaster et cetera, he should have just gone there. Let the media figure it out. In other words he is constantly “telling” us. He should “show” us.  By telling us what he was going to do, he made himself out to be a narcissistic show-boater and set himself up for failure.

Dumb. One again, the rule is show, don’t tell.