This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “emphasis,” comes to us from Dar. Check out her blog here!
Among the things I still struggle with most when I write a novel is how much emphasis to put on a detail.
There’s a fine line between not mentioning something enough for it to come across as important to the story and mentioning it so much that the reader says “Enough already” and throws the book across the room in frustration.
At least that’s what I’d be tempted to do when I read a book with too much repetitiveness if I wasn’t reading on a device.
One of the most repetitive comments (there’s a twist) I leave for my editor when I send her my book is “Have you read this before?” Pertaining to details, not the whole book.
Because I’m far too close to the story to see my mistakes.
What it comes down to is emphasis is important. Repetitiveness sucks.
This geographically correct post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!
I’ve bemoaned, before, the difficulty I’m having in trying to cut down the length of my manuscript whilst keeping the important little details intact – and at the same time making it readable. In a much broader sense than the idiom perhaps implies, the devil is in the details.
After letting my ex read the beginning of my novel a couple of weeks ago, I know now that my problems are indeed serious. When we were together he was not only my sounding board, he was the one I wrote to impress, and impress him I did with the details I put into my stories. He told me that they were what drew him in, placed him in the story so that he could feel as though it was going on around him. Two weeks ago, however, the first criticism he gave me was, “Where’s the detail?” I knew I was screwed.
While you might want to scream at me, “He’s your ex, Linda! Of course he’s going to criticize!”, I know he wants me to succeed – and I’m sure it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that if I make millions off this book he won’t have to pay child support. Heh.
So what is detail, and how am I to know the extent to which I should go to add it? I personally don’t like to read a book where every nook and cranny is described; every piece of clothing, or each hair that is blown out of place. I think the most important details are the ones that stimulate the senses. They say the sense of smell brings the most vivid memories to mind, yet ironically it’s the one I most often forget, and have to insert into a scene after it’s written.
For me, the most efficient way to add detail is to eliminate the passive voice. Just one example and I’ll leave it there – the rest I’ll save for my fiction post.
It was hot and smelly in the kitchen.
vs
The steamy kitchen reeked of wet cat. What were they cooking?
The detail adds to the word count. And yet which would you rather spend time reading?
We’ve discussed it here in the past and the general consensus seemed to be that most people would rather read a longer well-written book than a shorter one that sucked. I agree. It’s why I read Stephen King.
What I’d love to know today is, what kinds of detail do you enjoy? Do you want to know what every character looks like or would you rather use your own imagination? Do you want to know what they’re wearing down to the designer, or is a pair of starched jeans enough to tell you that they go to way too much trouble with their laundry?
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