I'm going to steal Cognito's saying. Descriptions - I'm in the boat of what is important to the story, no, I do not want to read about your character washing their hands. Not when I do so automatically, without a second thought. Unless it's somehow important (water shortages, not able to feel clean, etc) what is the point of describing it to me as a reader? Length does not cut it because then I'll just call BS and padding. The length of your novel should be determined by the story you are writing, not how much useless descriptions you can throw at a reader.
I think that the primary value of "show, don't tell" is in teaching the new writer that he can communicate through action and events and character dialogue, rather than through spoonfeeding explanations to the reader. But I think that it's also important to realize that you're _always_ "telling", to some degree. As you unfold more and more detail, you're showing more and telling less, but there's always telling. To me, "show" versus "tell" depends on the context. If you're explicitly explaining your message, you're telling; if you're going a level of detail higher and letting the reader interpret that message, you're showing. As an example, imagine an author writing: "Joe and Karen had a shouting argument on Saturday. Joe felt that Karen wasn't keeping the house clean; Karen felt that Joe didn't understand that simply tending a toddler was a full time job." That seems like telling, and summary. If the fight has any importance, and Joe or Karen are major characters, the fight should be a scene instead of a summary. And in that scene, Joe and Karen's feelings should be reflected in their words and expressions and actions and tone of voice. The writer should refrain from explaining those feelings; he should show them instead. On the other hand, what if Joe and Karen aren't major characters? What if the main character is a therapist, and the author is explaining that that therapist had a long and stressful day? If so, then the "telling", summary sentence might be: "It had been a long day for James, full of the same old people with the same old problems." If we want to instead "show" some of James' day, then we might provide a series of summaries of his patients' issues - summaries just like the above. So in this context, that summary that looks like "telling" when the MCs are Joe and/or Karen, may feel like "showing" when the MC is the therapist. Or we might unfold the detail even more and actually have a few moments of a scene, perhaps Karen and Joe having an argument in James' office. Getting back to the handwashing, I'd say that handwashing is rarely important enough to go into a lot of sensory and descriptive detail. On the other hand, merely stating that the handwashing happened, can count as "showing", not telling. For example: "Jane was very concerned about germs, especially when she dealt with animals." is telling in this context. To show, we might have: "Jane smiled stiffly at the boss's cat, and knelt to pat him, respectfully. (Blah blah conversation action paragraphs blah, until she leaves her boss's house and drives away.) Two blocks before her highway exit, she pulled into a Circle K and went into the bathroom to wash her hands. On the way out, she bought a pack of hand wipes and scrubbed her fingers, the steering wheel, the handle of her purse, and her keychain. Only then did she relax and turn on the radio for the rest of the drive home." We didn't describe her washing her hands, but the fact that she did is part of a paragraph that I would term as "show" in the context. ChickenFreak
I think you answered it yourself: when it doesn't matter or it's not necessary - don't. Use your own judgement, if you feel a summary is ok, then it probably is.
I agree with chickenFreak. Great examples with the hand washing/germaphobia. Personally, I have found myself doing much of the showing after I've drafted the scene. I don't fret about it too much at first because I know it takes time. I'm not going to have everything at first so I don't let it slow me down. I read that one author often took an entire week to write 1 page.
'Show don't tell' does not mean being overly descriptive, it means to show and describe the action. Don't just say 'she is a shoplifter' end of. Show that she is a shoplifter through her actions; showing and explaining, the sweaty palms, the racing heart, the adrenalin rush, the fear of being caught etc. You don't have to show every fear and emotion she is going through; just enough to let the reader feel something of what is going on.
As usual, I found myself nodding like the 'Ohhh yes...' Churchill dog throughout CF's post. When something is important, like an episode from the plot or a significant character trait, then showing adds depth and texture to the story. When it's an insignificant detail, just mention it if you really have to (although if it's insignificant does it even need that much attention?) A good place to use telling is at the beginning of a scene, especially one involving a time or location transition. You can summarise that transition quickly in a paragraph of telling (and it doesn't have to sound like 'meanwhile, back a the ranch...' type signposting) For instance, when a previous scene showed the victim being murdered in an upstairs room at the party. The next scenes show what the MC is doing at the party, meeting up with the femme fatale who he will later suspect of being involved in the murder and using him as an alibi, going home with her for a steamy night of strip mah jong. Then comes the scene where the detective arrives at the house to examine the crime scene - you need a quick paragraph explaining how long its been between the murder and the detective arriving etc., but you don't want to derail your scene's forward momentum with a whole load of description. This is when summary is better than scene.
Showing is the easy part. Anything can be made interesting by dramatizing it. Where things get tricky is making exposition / narrative summary interesting, instead of a mere reporting of past history.
