I recently discovered the term ‘As you know Bob.’ I loved it instantly because the terminology made me giggle, and the meaning levelled up my writing – almost immediately.

Put simply, ‘As you know Bob’ is where two characters have a conversation about something which, in real life, they would never need to talk about because they already know about it. The reason writers might keep the conversation in is because we have tried to avoid the dreaded info dump or lengthy exposition, explaining something critical to the character or plot. But in avoiding these pitfalls, we stumble into an ‘As you know Bob’ moment – where essentially, we are doing the same thing but disguising it as dialogue. In some ways, it is an example of telling the reader something instead of showing them.

For obvious reasons, let’s call one of our characters Bob. Bob is the best friend of our romantic heroine, Laura, and they are discussing Laura’s ex boyfriend – the main reason for her avoiding a new relationship:

Bob took his friend’s hand. ‘You need to forget Liam. He’s no good for you. Gareth, on the other hand…’

‘As you know, Bob, Gareth is bad news. And you know Liam broke my heart. We might have only been fifteen, but you were there.’

‘I know. It was awful, wasn’t it? There’s no way he should have run off with Sandy from Year 10.’

‘I cried for a week and you were the only one who stood by me. I went to his house to tell him I loved him, but Sandy answered the door and I jumped into the Hydrangea to hide from her, remember?’

I’ve made it super obvious in this example by using Bob himself, but the issue here is that both Bob and Laura have lived the experience they are talking about. We all talk about the past – especially with our lifelong friends, but the reason for this conversation is to tell the reader about something that has happened in Laura’s past. It is unlikely that this conversation would happen naturally between Laura and Bob if they were simply reminiscing about their schooldays. And in writing terms, it would be much better to show the reader what has happened – perhaps through Laura’s thoughts when she bumps into Sandy at the supermarket, or even making her cringe when she walks past a particularly vibrant hydrangea.

Another good example of ‘As you know Bob,’ might come in something like a cosy crime novel. Here, two police officers discuss their case:

‘Phillips got away with it again.’

‘Again? He got out of that fraud charge two years ago as well.’

‘And the theft case in 2015.’

‘At least he paid damages for the libel case last year.’

‘Only £1000 though, and we both know that’s a drop in the ocean for a guy like him.’

Again, here, the reason for the conversation is to alert the reader to Phillips’ shady past and to tell us he has avoided the law many times in the past. It would be better to show the reader this, perhaps either seeing the scene where he gets away or with the officer scrolling through a lengthy record for Phillips.

Showing not telling is a tricky piece of writing advice. As storytellers, we sometimes need to tell the reader things. And somehow we have to know instinctively when to do this and when to avoid it.

Look out for info dumps, exposition and ‘As you know Bobs’ at the beginning of chapters in particular, or when you introduce new characters or plot devices. This is where I was committing ‘As you know Bobs’ all over the place! Ask yourself – would the characters really talk about this? Or is it something they already know? How can you show the information through their thoughts, emotions, or actions instead?

If you are considering working with a Developmental Editor or Copyeditor soon or are in the market for a Manuscript Assessment, contact me to talk about your project.