Time for another journey diving into the mind of a prolific writer. As someone who has been writing for a long time (I’ll leave out the number for now) I know a thing or three about what it takes to develop something for writing and presentation. One of the big questions that comes up centers around how much detail and research is required.
The answer might surprise you.
Who knows? That is the answer. Everything depends on the type of story or plot you are writing about and your target audience. If you are writing non-fiction history then you better come prepared with caverns full of research material and sources to back up your words. Same is true for writing something technical or step-by-step.
Seems like a no-brainer, right?
Well, you could say the same for a work of fiction. Dive deep into background material and lay it out in place descriptions, events, artifacts, etc. in such detail that it paints a picture right out of the Louvre. Make your audience feel like they are standing right in the mix, ready to battle, discover the killer, and slap the handcuffs on themselves. All very relevant, but depending on the genre, audience, and story, going into such intricate and well-developed depth may tangent too far off the path.
You could potentially articulate too good a masterpiece.
What did I just say? Do too great a job at writing a story in detail? Blasphemy!
Well, let’s take a step back and discuss this witchery with which I speak. As a writer and a reader, I personally like detail. I like to be dropped smack in the middle of a scene and know all four walls, the ceiling, and the floor below me. Not to say I need to know every object, color, the temperature, or the cracks in the ceiling.
No, not that far.
I like the details that add to the environment. The ones that have some relevance and are artfully described to paint that canvas in such vivid detail my skin crawls, I feel the cold or see my breath, that ticking clock on the wall starts to annoy me with its back and forth, and the picture of Aunt Judy seems a bit off. If details set the scene just enough, as a reader I am there, right there, ready to get the hell out when the door creaks open.
Really? Sounds a bit too grandiose for a reader.
Not at all.
There is definitely a fine line between too much and too little detail. And as a writer, it comes from not researching your material or settings. I write about places that are included in my novels. Every location I include I have been there. Know the places intimately and include details so that a reader know I speak from experience if they happen to live in my setting. That’s not to say some things do not completely come from imagination because as a writer you sometimes have to expand the bubble to make it all fit into your works. There is no way around it.
So what’s an example?
A novel writes about the back streets of Paris, the seedy parts where illicit activities and the underside of decay runs rampant. Your MC is a loner, a man who is looking to rid his neighborhood of crime. You could do your due diligence and wander about, walk the sidewalks, visit the alleyways, peer inside buildings, watch the people. Talk to individuals, the street prostitutes, drug dealers, really anyone who lives or works within its confined space. Get absorbed into the gritty gray cobblestones and dive headfirst.
You could. But, at what risk to you?
Or, you could hit the world wide web and research! Use satellite maps, local news articles, and whatever else you can scrape up. The back streets are part of the setting, not the focus, so unless you are writing about the actual streets and area, you can do your research from afar. If you were writing about the actual backstreets and the things that occur, then yes, you really would want to research first person to get the vibe and feel. Talk about a specific street and the corner building. In that vein, you really are adding details in a depth to convey it to your readers.
See the difference yet?
Here’s another take.
Chicago. 1960s. The rise of the protest movement. Your story revolves around a singular key player who defied oppression and brought about reform. Unless you were there, you have no way of knowing what it was like, the tension, the brutalities, the sense of fear. You could not fake your way through describing it.
No way, no how.
However, and this is the key, you can read. Read some more. And read even more about it. First person accounts. Books that have already written about the time period. Scour every newspaper online archive that has digitized their articles. Develop an intimate relationship with the events and use as a backdrop for your story.
It all depends on what your focus is and what you attempt to write.
A different take is in not having enough detail at all. Where you simply leave your reader confounded by where your MC is, what he or she is doing, and can’t make heads or tails of the scene. In this situation, where you might focus as a writer too much on the character or dialog and leave the atmosphere dry and boring beyond any reasonable decision. In this take on it, your reader becomes lost and potentially loses interest.
Don’t go there!
So, how do you balance everything and do it the right way? Remember, there is no specific answer that is gold.
Or silver for that matter.
There are a few tried and true tricks, really guidance and advice, that can offer assistance. You probably know them already and have read a million writers and authors professing the same things.
Maybe.
First one. Set the scene. Provide details at the beginning in a brief description that adds some color to those gray walls. A few well placed specifics that makes your reader feel like you know what you are talking about.
So, you smart writer person, how? Well here is an example of the boring and dry scene.
John walked into the room and sat down. He picked up the bottle, opened it, and poured some of the contents into a glass.
Ouch! Yawn.
Liven it up.
John walked into the cold room, his breath a mist with every exhale. An old beaten up wooden chair with the lower back missing was the only one at the table, so he pulled it out and sat. A full bottle of Vodka stood in the middle of the table, screaming for John to open and take a swig. Grabbing the dusty glass and using his sleeve to clean it, he poured two fingers and took a drink.
Now that’s detail. It sets up the rest of the scene. You wouldn’t need to describe anything else if you didn’t want to, just dive into why he was there and any potential points of discussion. Let the scene play out and take the reader along. You’ve put them in the room, they know it’s cold and seems pretty bare of furnishings, and that John likes Vodka. Or at least was desperate enough to have some.
Task done.
But, wait. What research did you do? Isn’t that what this blog post is supposed to be writing and showing us what to do?
Ah, a great question.
Research isn’t just collecting information from books, the web, or other sources. Research is also presenting what you know.
Um, huh?
There is a point where the heat of your exhaled breath creates a warm mist when it comes into contact with the cold. A cold temperature low enough where the vapor of water from the heat of your air causes the cold air to affect the molecules coming from you and turn to a mist. You’d need to know that in order to write about it. That’s a detail. I didn’t explicitly go into a vast depth of it to convey the meaning with my scene setting, but I used the knowledge to describe and tease it enough you learned that room was really cold.
OK, got it. But what about other stuff?
Jeez, you are a tough crowd!
How about the dusty glass? Takes a bit of time for dust to collect. As a reader some things could be interpreted here. The first, that glass had been sitting in the same place for a really long time to collect dust. The second, that room and the coldness means the door had been closed for a very long time with no heat inside. The dust collected over a long period and then the room was left closed up.
OK, got it. Maybe.
Here’s a third possibility that could be part of the whole set up. Maybe all the previous points are true. But, the cold has a different meaning. Something wicked or evil. That could be coming.
And soon.
As a writer everything is a balancing act. Too little or too much, you can go either way. What matters is are you providing just enough to convey the plot, convince the reader, and give them a sit on the edge of their seat story that makes them want more. Your story must compel you too. Does it make you want to read it or are you just going through the motions? You are the writer, so you know the plot and characters. You know the places and people.
Your readers don’t.
That is why you always have to take a step back. Read it out loud if you have to do it. Have a friend or loved one read your book. Not to give you accolades on your greatness, but to provide some feedback on whether they “get” your work. They don’t even have to like it. Just provide information as to if they can feel what you are trying to say.
I know, I know. I’d prefer they like it too.
So, that’s it.
Oh no. Wait! It can’t be.
All right. I’ll stick to it a bit more. Just a bit.
So, when might you skimp on the details?
A valid question. And a really hard one to answer. The best way to say it would be to exclude a whole bunch of adjectives in a single sentence. Choose the focus of what you really think makes a point. Avoid this mistake.
John was tired, his eyes about to shut, body falling forward, and his head nodding as he tried to stay awake.
That is a whole lot to paint the picture. Leaves little to the imagination. This says it with less and let’s the reader relate to an instance in their past experience.
John’s head nodded as he tried to stay awake.
You can picture the same or similar image of John based on each sentence and extrapolate from there.
That’s a great example. The same approach for dialog, like this.
“The dust in this glass is thick,” John said as he looked inside and took his sleeve in hand to wipe all the dirt out.
Says mountains.
Then this happens.
“The dust in this glass is thick,” John grimaced, his sleeve wiping the decades of filth away.
Short and succinct. Says the same thing in a gritty way.
But, the title says research and going to class or skip it.
I see your point. Really I do.
Well, the skip it part then. We usually write what we know. But not everything requires full on research with notebooks full of well, notes! Sometimes, you simply have to wing it.
Say what?
Wing it. Use your imagination. Let everything come from it. Create your own worlds, textures, colors, the whole enchilada.
Awesome! That’s what I would do. Fantasy writing is outside the norm, so as an author you get to create what you want, how you want, when you want, without any confines. I like it! Thanks for the advice!
Hold on there cowboy. Have you not noticed the sarcasm? Read between the lines? Taken anything to heart?
Um, no.
Well, then focus my friend. Every writer needs to research, no matter the genre or content. It is an absolute must. The degree of research is the gray area. So a little or a lot, prepare yourself. You never know when you will need to use that knowledge lurking around in your head.
Jason McDonald 