When writing with intention and purpose, novelists often break the rules that beginning writers are told to avoid. "Tell Don't Show: How to successfully break the rules of fiction" was written to help those authors understand the rules so that they can successfully break them. The book has many examples of successful solutions that professional and award-winning authors have used to make their prose stronger without throwing the reader completely off the page. The three authors have each taught classes on breaking the rules of fiction, intentional writing, and many other aspects of how to write better fiction. After being asked repeatedly about available books on the subject and having nothing to recommend, they sat down and wrote the book.