The constant exhortation to “show don’t tell” has led to grotesquely bloated and tedious prose by too many fiction writers who take it far too much to heart. A novel I recently read spent ten pages of excruciating detail about character getting groomed and dressed, summoning an Uber, traveling to a local event space, clicking around the halls in her kitten heels, pointlessly interacting with random people there, excusing herself to use the bathroom, finding the bathroom… then finally, after all that boring BS, bumping into her ex in the bathroom and having a conversation with her (the actual plot point).

This would have been far better served with the simple tell of “At the XYZ event she ran into her ex in the restroom,” with a smattering of scene setting and the plot-relevant interaction they had. Show only what’s interesting, and never hesitate to gloss over those tedious connector bits with a graceful touch of tell.