A Guide to Ink Masterpieces

The Devil is in The Details: Description and You

One of the most important elements of story telling is your ability to describe well. Just like baking a cake, not having the right amount of sugar can ruin your hours of sweat and efforts. Amateur writers often don't understand the value of description, or saturate their works in details that are unnecessary. This article will help you find the perfect balance of detail for your literature.

If you haven't heard of the infamous phrase "using your five senses" when it comes to implementing description into your stories yet, you should be well on your way to understanding what it means. By slowing down and taking the time to consider the smells, tastes, sounds, feelings, and visuals of your setting can greatly improve your work. Instead of using words like blue or red, using specific hues like lilac or sienna brown will appeal to the reader's hunger for visual flavor. Kitchens and bathrooms have distinct smells that are very different from hospitals or the off-ramp of a highway. Noise is equally as important as sight. We don't realize the impact of background noise has on us on a daily basis, let alone what it can have on the atmosphere of a story. Chatter on the radio and car horns blasting away provide a setting readers can relate to rush hour traffic, or the misery of a Monday morning after Christmas holidays with their family. Using the sense of taste is used for physical interactions with your characters; whether it's the taste of copper and salt in your character's mouth from a bit lip, or the light flavor of mildew in an old rubber canteen when your character is hydrating before a training mission out in the field. Or how would a chair feel in the waiting room of the doctor's office? Big, plush and cool chairs would suggest a therapist's office, which is meant for patients to feel safe and relaxed; where as one waiting in an emergency room would be in cheap, stiff and small chairs would have the feeling of discomfort and something being wrong, not safe.

The next infamous phrase "drink in moderation" can be applied to writing as often as "the five senses." Don't believe for a minute that you have to use all five senses to deliver the punchline of your anecdote. Getting caught up in the details can just as easily ruin your work as not using any. There is such a thing as saturating your story with details that ultimately slow the reader down, making them feel tired, bored and heavy. There are ways where too little detail can leave the reader starved for more, and that is never a good feeling. After a while your reader may seek out stories elsewhere. You want to find the right balance of juices and proper temperature for your steak to melt in your mouth. Instead of using all five senses, pick three. Describe your setting and work your character's features in as if you were adding a little salt here, and a little pepper there to perfect the flavor of your dish before presenting it to the diner.

Each writer takes a different approach to their work, and each story requires a certain finesse. Not many writers consider this when building details in to their literature. There is an audience for everything so spend less time concerned about appealing to a specific crowd and spend more time making the story suit you and your needs. But to be more personal, I find the best time for detail is when you have your basic concepts already on paper. Just like creating an acrylic painting, you start off with general shapes and patterns. It isn't until the end that you begin adding the details that define your subject and show the on-looker the final creation.