47. Show Don't Tell - How Your Creative Wiring Shapes What Lands on the Page!

About this episode

Episode 47: Show, Don’t Tell: How Your Creative Wiring Shapes What Lands on the Page Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.

Have you ever been told to “show, don’t tell” and immediately felt yourself overthinking every sentence?

In this Writing Wednesday episode, we’re looking at one of the most common pieces of writing craft advice through a completely different lens: your creative wiring.

Because showing versus telling isn’t only about adding more description. It’s about helping your reader experience the moment. And the way you naturally process the world often shapes the way you write the world.

In this episode, Maddison explores how the four NLP Writer’s Mind modalities — Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital — can influence what lands on the page. You’ll discover why visual writers may naturally lean into imagery, auditory writers may hear dialogue and rhythm first, kinesthetic writers may write from feeling and body sensation, and auditory digital writers may move quickly into meaning, thought, and explanation.

None of these are wrong. They are clues.

You’ll learn how to recognise when one modality may be taking over your scenes, how to revise with more intention, and how to use the Four-Modality Showing Pass to make your writing feel fuller, more embodied, and more alive.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “show, don’t tell” is really about reader experience
• How your dominant NLP modality can shape your natural writing strengths
• Why visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and auditory digital writers may all “show” differently
• Common signs that a scene is leaning too heavily on one modality
• How to revise your scenes using the Four-Modality Showing Pass
• Why your creative wiring is not a flaw, but a powerful clue to your writing voice

This episode is especially helpful if you’ve ever received feedback that your writing feels flat, over-explained, under-described, too internal, too emotionally heavy, or hard to picture — and you weren’t quite sure what to do with that feedback.

Your natural modality is part of your gift. The more you understand it, the more intentionally you can use it.

 

Want to understand how you’re uniquely wired to write?

If today’s episode made you realise that the way you naturally process story might be shaping what lands on the page, then my Writing Personality Blueprint Session is the perfect next step.

This is a personalised 1:1 session where we look at your unique writing wiring, including your Bird Writing Personality and creative patterns, so you can better understand what supports your writing, what creates resistance, and what kind of process will actually help you move forward.

You’ll walk away with practical, personalised strategies designed around how you write best, so you can stop fighting your natural process and start building a writing rhythm that truly works for you.

You can book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint

 

Resources mentioned:

Discover your writing personality: maddisonmichaels.com/quiz
Book a Writing Personality Blueprint Session: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint

 

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write.