Telling Vs. Showing - What's the difference

It's been said that "everyone has a story to tell". That quote goes back many years and for a writer who wants to be published and sell books, that statement is a nemesis.

That statement is true, however, and if all you want to do is tell a story, that's fine and dandy.  If you want to see your work on the shelves of bookstores across the country, however, you need to know how to SHOW a good story.  Your readers, should you get published, are your bread and butter, but to get to the reader, you have to get past the publisher, and they're more finicky than the readers, because it's their money they are shelling out to publish your book.

Okay, so now you're probably wondering what the difference is between the two. In order to SHOW you the difference between these two forms of writing, let me take a hypothetical situation and write it as A) TELLING it and B) as SHOWING it.  I will get to those two in a minute. 

Telling a story is coming from you, the author.  Why?  Because you know the scenes, you know the characters, and you are simply telling the story through your own imagination.

Showing a story comes from your characters, to be more precise your protagonist or antagonist, or your main characters.  Your story is being told through their eyes, ears and nose.

Okay, so let's try a hypothetical situation and use both methods, so you can see the difference.

Detectives Sparks and Daniels are on a stakeout in a dark alley waiting for a murder suspect to exit a door at the far end of the alley.

 TELLING THE STORY

The two detectives enter the alley behind Gallaghers Bar on Main Street and Detective Sparks takes a position behind a smelly dumpster.  Detective Daniels steps into a doorway and they both wait for their suspect to exit through the door.

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In the above example, all the reader would know is that the detectives have entered an alley behind a bar.  You have to assume it's night, because you haven't been given any indication otherwise. There's a smelly dumpster and a doorway, and a door somewhere that a person is expected to come through.

Now let's show the same scenario through the eyes of the main character, Detective Sparks.

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SHOWING A STORY 

With his service revolver drawn, Detective sparks enters the darkened alley behind Gallagher's Bar on Main Street, with his partner right behind him and to his left. A full moon lights the alley so both men can cautiously approach the door at the end. Seeing two strategic points from which to wait for the suspect, Detective Sparks motions his partner to a doorway several feet opposite a dumpster, while he takes a position behind it.  As he positions himself for a clear view of the doorway, thirty feet in front of the dumpster, his nose gets a whiff of the stench from stale food that permeates where he stands.

As he looks towards their target, he can see that there's a light just to the immediate right of the door and it gives them both a clear view if and or when their suspect exits through the door.

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In the above example, we now have information we didn't have the first time, but we also have it through the eyes of the main character.  Your reader doesn't have to ask how they knew a doorway was there, because Detective Sparks saw it.  They don't have to wonder how you would be able to see the suspect when he exits through the door.  You've answered these questions before they became questions.

Yes you do have to leave something to the reader's imagination, but you don't want them to have to create the entire scene in their mind. Leave them wanting to know more.