More Digging In The Details
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Last year I wrote an article about the details that should and shouldn’t be in your narrative. If you want to see that article, you can click here. I’ve reread that and have been thinking a bit more on that, so I have a few more ideas I’d like to add. And if I repeat myself a bit, forgive me.
No Laundry List
Some writers feel the need to fully describe every object, scene, and person. In truth, it makes for tedious reading. Who cares if the heroine is blonde or if her boyfriend in 6’2”? These details should be added if in some way they help tell the story. The problem often is that writers are too close to their stories and think things are vital that readers don’t care for. This is one of the many reasons beta readers are vital.
To tell the truth, I see the appeal, from the prospective of the writer, for including every detail of how things look. I was that way a long time ago. I felt that including every possible detail made me seem as a better writer, like I come across as more observant, maybe more keen or clever than other writers. In truth, it comes across as amateurish. Excessive details flood the reader with tidbits they really don’t want to know. And when you describe everything down to the molecule, you rob the reader of using their imagination. Let them fill in the blanks with their own creativity.
Notice Details Others Usually Miss
No one is saying that writers should use details, certainly not me. Just use the right ones and in the right manner. Everyone describes the face, or more specifically, the eyes and smile. Give someone a long pointy nose, or one so small it’s almost invisible. It’s different, but make it mean something, too. A long, pointy nose may make someone look like a witch.
Now you’re halfway to making readers think that so all you have to do is add witchy behavior. Describe ordinary behavior with specific verbs. For example, you can have a character walk from here to there, or they can march, amble, stumble, stride, glide, slide, and more than a few others I have not mentioned. The same can be said for a car, which can do much more than just drive. Try contracting a noun into a verb for some real punch to your text. I had a scene in my third novel, Prince, where an Italian sports car driven by a teen dives quickly in a residential neighborhood. I wanted something other than the car speeds down the street. If you buy a copy of Prince (and why not?), you will read how this car triumphed through the residential roads. I’ll let you decide if it worked. Either way, it’s different.
Unusual Is Interesting
Everyone is different, which means everyone acts different. Some people are downright unique. I once say someone lick an apple before biting into it. I thought then it’s going in a book (it made it into a short story, good enough). Everything that is unusual grabs and keeps the readers attention. Moreover, it makes the character that more specific, and specific is good.
One place you can really stretch and pull on a character to make him or her as individualistic as possible is in their speech. You can really show the inner person by speech. Every character needs to sound like that character, and not just like the author. Give one character a stutter, and have another speak without contractions. You would be surprised how little differences make a difference in how a character comes across. Just make sure that these speech details are purposeful and deliberate, and more than anything else, something that contributes to the character or the story.
