Q: Showing, or Telling?

Another Question from the (not-so-)humble author this week:
Am I showing enough, or am I just telling?

I do try to show more than I tell, because - to be perfectly frank - telling the reader everything outright is both sloppy and lazy writing. Readers should be able to reach conclusions on their own, not be hand-fed (or force-fed) the subtleties of a plot or relationship or characterization...especially through dialogue. It's weak, and it's boring.

Of course, now I'm going to contradict myself, not ten words later, and make exceptions. Because there are certain parts of the story, by its very nature of being told from one character's point of view, that have to be told to the reader. For example:
- Yukiko's decision(s) about marriage;
- Souji's retelling of the falling-out between him and Yousuke;
- Kuma's revelations about what happened to her during the first Mayonaka run.
These are all moments that have to be relayed to Chie by another character, since Chie did not experience these scenes and their associated emotions firsthand. There are also smaller examples scattered throughout the story, but these should give you an idea of what I mean by "telling" the reader, instead of "showing" the reader.

Nonetheless, I am trying not to relate within massive chunks of dialogue pivotal pieces of the plot and developments. I get to be in Chie's head all of the time, but (as I've mentioned in earlier posts), she is not the most observant or deductive of people. However, I often get the feeling that I'm being too subtle with what's going on in the story and between the characters, and I wonder if that's throwing some people off-track from the main plot.

As an example, I was loathe to leave in the conversation about the nature of Souji's issues in Chapter 56...but I thought that if I didn't have that dialogue between the characters, some readers might be completely lost as to what the heck is going on. (It's the conversation that starts with Kuma saying, "We all have Shadows, kuma," and then goes on to each of the characters present making logic leaps - as these Persona Scoobies are wont to do - regarding Souji.) The conversation felt somewhat over-explanatory to me, but I also felt like I had to put it in there because I'm...I don't know...catering to the least common denominator, I guess.

I admittedly went a little overboard with the first half of Chapter 52 ("Thrall"), but that was simply self-indulgence on my part to write such an in-Chie's-head sex scene. I hadn't written one of those in a long time ("Mountain Men" maybe?), and I wanted to foreshadow (no pun intended) some of what was to come in Chapter 56 and 57, regarding the Shadows.

I'm going to try very hard to show more and not tell as much in the remaining chapters, but there are some parts that just need to be told to the reader. Partly for plot reasons - because there are some realizations that the characters can make only when they're together - and partly because, well, I'm not that skilled a writer to describe the point any other way.

But I will continue to try not to just drop you a bunch of text that explains everything for you...and I'll certainly try not to give it to you in dialogue. I have to tell a story that everyone should be able to understand...but I want to be fair to my more intelligent and observant readers, too. :)

Answer: Anyone got a different one?