“The writer must be as objective as possible.”Anton Cehov · Scrisori · 1900 · lui Suvorin, 1890
When the author preaches, the reader defends himself; when the author shows, the reader judges for himself.
In his letters to collaborators, Chekhov argued that the author must neither judge the characters nor impose a moral. When the writer preaches, the reader defends themselves; when the writer shows, the reader judges alone. A suffering character described without commentary hits harder than a paragraph of indignation, because the reader's emotion is their own, not borrowed.
Why it matters The rule reaches beyond literature: in any communication, concrete showing persuades more than stated opinion, and moralizing pushes away the very people you want to reach.