Filling in the Details
Last week, I talked about writing concisely, which is something I’m pretty good at. This week, I’m talking about the flipside of that, which is also one of my weaknesses as a writer–filling in the details.
When I sit down to write, I generally picture the scene I’m writing as I go. In addition to the visuals, I’m also imagining things like sounds and smells and the general atmosphere. The problem I have is that with all of these details in my head, they never make it to the page. So I often receive critiques that point out that my characters are “talking heads” (i.e., nondescript, in a nondescript setting), or I introduce some sensory information that seems to come out of nowhere (like a detail about the poor lighting, which hadn’t come up previously).
Because I’m not great at including these details in my drafts, I have to remember to add them in when I’m revising a piece. I’ve gone so far as to print out a copy of a story or chapter and mark it up with colored markers, one for each of the five senses, where I have included sensory details. Then I go back for a second pass and flag places (using the same assigned colors for each sense) where I could add more detail that touches on that sense. My pages can go from nearly white, with a scattering of these colors, to much more like a rainbow once I realize just how few details I initially included.
The good news for me is that I can generally re-picture the scene I’ve written when I come back to revise it, but in some cases, even I’m not sure what the scene should look (and sound, and smell) like. So I have to reconstruct that scene in my mind and then pick out the details I need to convey.
As I mentioned previously, it’s not entirely necessary to include every last detail about a scene, especially if it’s not relevant to the plot or the characters. For example, talking about the pattern on the wallpaper in a room that someone is just briefly passing through probably isn’t necessary. Telling us what color a characters curtains are is another detail that can often be left out. But if a character is going to throw something into the fireplace at some point in a scene, it might be pertinent to mention the fireplace earlier, including whether it’s burning brightly or smoldering. And these details, too, can help shape the mood of the scene, which may also serve the plot!
Comments