Lately, I feel like I’ve blathered on and on about how we incorporate details in our writing:
- Their importance as we set the stage for story
- The role they play in bringing a story to life for readers
- And, the old standard, “Show, don’t tell.”
Enough is enough, right?
Or, is it?
Every time I come across a new article on the way details work in crafting a good story, I learn something new, or I am reminded of a forgotten element of the technique. Either way, how I use details keeps resurfacing in my work and in my discussions about the work, so I’d best keep listening.
In her essay, “Everything Has a Name (Or, How Gardening Made Me a Better Writer),” on Grub Street Daily, Celeste Ng hits on why writers must continue to hone this skill:
[Y]our job, at its heart, is to give everything—objects, events, emotions—its precise name. Not “flower,” but He was waiting for the geranium. Not “summer,” but Heat. A baseball field. Yellow grass, the whirr of insects. Not “beauty,” but this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. . . .To be a writer, you don’t need to have the name of every plant, or every tool, or every bird, at the ready. But you need to find it, to point your finger and make the reader slow down, pay attention, look closer.
Slow down. Pay attention.
Your work will translate into a better read for your audience.
The Prompt
Lost or Found. Write about something you lost or something you found.
Consider the specificity of your details. Don’t dress them in adjectives but give them names.
* Photo credit: Microphone, doctor_bob on Morguefile.com; Kids, me.
Slow down and pay attention should be the motto for ALL of us! And no, we can never have enough good craft advice.
Yes, part of the fun (and challenge) in writing: there’s always more to learn! Congrats, by the way, on your new gig at Brain, Child Magazine’s site!