Focusing on Small Details Can Count
When we
think about detail, we tend to think big and bold, and the lush, beautiful
descriptions that teem with colour and visual prompts; the kind of thing that should
fill a novel, but while these details help make a story, it’s often the smaller
details that give it that extra dimension. That’s because sometimes we notice
smaller details more than we do huge detail. It may be that our brains are
wired to notice these thing.
Writing is
no different – minute details can add to the narrative in a subtle way which
still enhances the story.
So what kinds
of detail make a difference?
The devil
really is in the detail. How you create that detail is up to you, but the
effect you can create with it is the key to good fiction, because the correct
balance of detail – from the biggest detail to the smallest, goes a long way to
help make the story memorable rather than forgettable.
Many writers forget the small detail, simply
because they assume small details don’t matter, but in the grand scheme of
things, they actually do matter. The small details do more than highlight a
splinter of information that the reader might otherwise overlook, they actually
have many functions, because unlike huge swathes of detail, we use the small
details to provoke the reader’s senses – the olfactory, auditory, gustatory,
kinaesthetic and the visual.
Olfactory
The sense of
smell – although in reality the reader cannot possibly smell anything in written
a book, small details within the description allow their senses to
imagine it. So the strong earthy aroma of coffee from a café, the
sweetness of honeysuckle on the breeze or the hint of freshly cut grass – they all
help the reader visualise the scene. Not only that, but olfactory details takes
them from the ordinary into the extraordinary; it creates a sense of atmosphere
and mood and nostalgia, because the one thing we all know is true - imagining
certain smells can evoke different memories, especially ones from our
childhood.
If you can
evoke these moods and feelings within your reader, you also create a
connection, a sense of immediacy.
Auditory
Again, when reading,
the reader can’t physically hear anything other the words in their mind, so
it’s up to the writer to help the reader hear all that is going on, and in some
scenes small details can go a long way. For instance, the constant drip of a
tap in the distance can create atmosphere. Or what about the gentle hum of rain
on a roof? What mood could it create? The rustle of leaves. The sound of
someone breathing...or whispers.
They’re all
small details on their own which can create greater detail in context to the
entire scene. The greater the detail in this sense, the greater the reaction you
invoke in your reader.
Gustatory
Food is one
of those things writers tend to forget about – completely. They forget that
their protagonist hasn’t eaten for days on end in the novel, or they forget
that the protagonist is superhuman and doesn’t actually need food (or the bathroom,
for that matter). How many of your characters go through life changing events
and yet never stop to actually eat anything or go to the bathroom?
Of course, a
scene doesn’t always require that the character is eating to describe different
scents, but small sensory details that hint at aromas can help build a scene
for the reader.
Gustatory
details can be something as simple as describing the sweetness of sugar on a
pancake, or the sour taste of medicine, or maybe the tingling freshness of
mint. And surprisingly, gustatory detail can also evoke nostalgic memories for
readers.
Kinaesthetic
Kinaesthetic
refers to the physical – the sense of touch, what the character feels when he
touches something. Not only that but it
also refers to external stimulation such as the heat of the sun on the face,
the feeling of a fly on the hand, the feel of water around the body when we’re
swimming.
This type of
detail is especially effective when in character POV, where the reader is privy
to the main character’s thoughts and feelings, so the writer can explore the
feel of someone else’s skin in an intimate scene for example, or the feel of
cool raindrops during a stormy scene. Or perhaps it could describe the
fierceness of the sun’s heat in desolate landscape.
Little
details like this add the realism of your scenes, because the reader will know
what these sensations feel like and they will attribute a memory to it, this
creating that all important connection and sense of immediacy.
Visual
The most obvious
detail that writers use is the visual. There are so many details that can evoke
a huge range of imagery for the reader that the visual encompasses so many
things, because the visual is virtually all description.
But it’s the
detail that counts. Small details can sometimes be symbolic, and symbolism plays
an important role in writing. That detail could anything, like a colour, or a
certain flower. Perhaps it’s starkness of a landscape, or the darkness of an
abandoned building. It can be absolutely anything.
Details create more than background information. They can provide the
reader with sensory snippets which, in turn, can create a virtual landscape in
the reader’s mind.
The beauty of such details is that you don’t have to overdo them – not
every scene requires pages of luscious and rich description. It’s all about subtlety. Let the details
stand out in smaller scenes; make the reader notice certain things, make them
think, make them wonder, but above all, make them visualise.
Next week: Common word confusions
This is an excellent post. Smell is probably the hardest sense for me to work into my stories. Thanks for the reminder. :)
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