Good Storytelling and Bad
Good storytelling requires two things: firstly, you need the audience to be interested in the story you're telling. Secondly, you have to keep them interested. The particulars on how to do so vary a bit genre to genre. However, one of the most effective ways to lose an audience's interest is to tell them things you aren't showing them. What do I mean by that? Well, for example, say I'm watching a movie and five or ten minutes in the main character is described as "caring too much", but everything I've been shown about this character makes them seem flighty, immature, attention seeking, and a bit self-righteous. Now as an audience member, I'm immediately distrustful of anything I'm told going forward. Admittedly, Edger Allan Poe does an amazing job using the "tell something not shown" concept rather ironically in "Tell Tale Heart", so it is possible to tell a compelling narrative like that, but only if you're tryi...