I hope you never light up a room!

I was listening to a true crime podcast the other day when I heard the familiar line:
‘She lit up a room.’

My stomach sank. I knew exactly what was coming next. She wasn’t going to be lighting up anything much longer.

‘Lit up a room’ isn’t just a tired true crime trope. It’s a crime against storytelling. Fight me.

I get it. It’s easy to say someone ‘lit up a room’ when you can’t put your finger on what made them special. Clichés don’t connect us. They do the opposite, leaving us feeling nothing at all.

‘She lit up a room’ is a storytelling crime because it tells your audience, rather than showing them.

And in storytelling, that difference between telling and showing is everything. Master showing, and your stories will stay with people long after you’ve finished speaking.

When you say, ‘She lit up a room,’ you’ve handed your audience a beige Ikea lamp and told them to imagine the glow.

But when you show them? That’s when your stories sparkle. ✨

• Don’t say, ‘She lit up a room.’ Instead, show me: When she laughed, people paused and turned toward her, smiling.
• Don’t tell, ‘He was a hard worker.’ Show me: He was the last one in the office, bent over his desk while the cleaners vacuumed around him.
• Don’t write, ‘The crowd was angry.’ Show me: A chorus of boos drowned out the speaker’s voice.

Showing immerses your audience. Telling? That’s the fast track to snooze-ville.

So next time you’re tempted to raid the cliché cupboard, resist. Ditch the Ikea lamp and instead give your audience sunlight, spilled coffee, broken sandals.

Because in storytelling, showing is the only thing that truly lights up the room.