[quote=@Bork Lazer]
Alright, I feel like I'm going to slay a sacred cow here. 

" Show, don't tell." should be changed to " Show and tell." 

Yes, it's the number one golden rule of writing. It's what every English Lit teacher tells us in middle or high school whenever we get a creative writing assessment. I think the problem right now, barring first-time fanfiction writers who robotically write out every single line, is too much showing and not enough telling. In fact, I believe this rule is the ultimate source of purple prose that has plagued an healthy amount of literature. Summary and brevity can have its own dramatic effect as well and serves an essential role. There should be a balance between both. Obviously, this will vary depending on what type of genre you want to write and so forth but it's not something that you should follow dearly to your heart. 
[/quote]

Show, don't tell is the ideal, but it's something to build up to as you learn and improve. 

I'd say the fatal flaw in that advice is that it's misinterpreted; in writing (as opposed to film) the 'show' isn't about [i]visually[/i] representing something (or describing it in writing) rather than explaining it, as it is in film; rather in writing it's about character action and setting effect. 

For example: don't tell us in narration or dialogue that a character is X thing (say, stern). Instead, show us through [i]action[/i] that your character is stern, for example, by having them respond sternly to a situation. Don't [i]describe[/i] that the government rules with an iron fist; [i]show[/i] them doing something tyrannical. Basically, as a general rule, if you have to tell the audience something (through narration or dialogue) about a character or a setting, you haven't done a good enough job establishing that thing through demonstration. 

So yeah, it's not really about description vs brevity, I think it's just misinterpreted that way cause a big trouble in writing (I think we all fall victim to it sometimes) is imagining your scene as a movie when film doesn't translate to paper as well as you might think. 

Maybe an appropriate writing-focused rephrase would be "Demonstrate, don't describe"

[s]or something really catchy idk you get me[/s]