pretert vs past continuous / show vs tell

I've only heard preterite used for Spanish. I believe it's called directly simple past in English.

Past continuous/progressive is not considered telling, nor does it "tell" more. Any tense or tense form can tell or show equally.

"Bob was walking down the road." Shows no less than, "Bob walked down the road." One just notes a continuing action rather than a non-continuing one.
Telling would be: "Bob had walked down the road." "Bob thought/was thinking of walking down the road."

If you have a use to show continuing actions, then use past continuous/progressive. Though, it might good to cut down on them for a better feeling of immediacy.

'Show don't tell' has nothing to do with tense.

'Show don't tell' simply means don't tell me 'Jake was angry' - show me what he is doing and how he is expressing his anger and 'let me work out for myself that he is angry'.

BUT - sometimes showing is best and sometimes telling is best- the decision is up to the author based upon the effect he wants to achieve and the importance of the relative action or event.

Tense doesn't make something show or tell. "Show" means just what it says. You show the character doing something. In tell, you don't show the character doing something, you just tell the reader that he did it.

Agree with all of the others. You can "show, don't tell" in any tense.

WillSauger said:

I've only heard preterite used for Spanish. I believe it's called directly simple past in English.

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Preterite is the proper term for Germanic "past tense", including English. However, this is mostly confined to comparative grammar and linguistics. I like to use preterite because it is one word, despite it not being taught in primary or secondary education.

arcan said:

It's'not the first time I get that: "Show, don't tell". I didn't always understand it until it was pointed to me today. I use past continuous quite often. So the answer is simple: use preterit instead. But I don't much like that idea. After all both tenses have their usage and using preterit for an on-going action sounds plain wrong to me.
Why is past continuous even considered as telling rather than showing?

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I'm glad you decided to post this question because you've either been given some bad advice or you have misinterpreted comments you've received. Use of past continuous (what I call past progressive) has nothing to do with tell vs show.

You have to sift through the advice you get. Much is well-meant but inaccurate. Many people believe all -ing words are passive. They are not.