She looked away, her eyes shifting without focusing. Was she really ashamed? Good. The wench.

When we’re telling, we skip to the conclusions:

She was ashamed.

This was also the subject of a post in the Deep POV series: http://jordanmccollum.com/2009/07/your-characters-thoughts-in-real-time/ .

Remember, I’m not NaNoing.

Showing in enough words > showing in fewer words. Terseness isn’t always a virtue, especially when we sacrifice clarity, vividness, or the opportunity for an emotional connection.

But then, it does depend on your drafting style. I tend to draft short, even while showing, and add more later in edits. (But it’s nice to start editing with at least a book-length manuscript). And as you’ve said, you tend to draft long, so conserving words is important.

That works well for NaNoWriMo, but in general, more words != better words.
I’ve seen cases where people take the “don’t tell” advice and just wind up “telling” it in more words.

All I’m saying is that “showing in fewer words” > “showing in more words”
And this is probably because I just write too much so I’m always looking for ways to cut word count while improving the actual words.

If she could pour coffee on her head and magically awaken, it would become her morning meeting ritual.
18 words vs 19 original :p