The devil is in the details as the old saying goes. Well, for us writers, that is true maybe a little more than half the time. We have it drummed into our heads that when we write we should show, not tell. Why would we write something as simple as “The woman was tired.”? We wouldn’t. We would write “Elizabeth stretched back in her seat and tried to fight back a yawn to no avail.”
Telling a story takes a lot of focus. It requires being detailed enough to keep the reader engaged and excited about the pages yet to be turned. However, once we finish our first draft, we quickly realize that although it is important what we put in our story, it is also just as important what we cut out of it. It’s not always easy to decide what to cut out of our story. After all, you may have spent countless hours researching for your book and you’ve learned so much. You want the reader to feel like they’ve learned, too. There’s only one problem with that. Maybe your reader doesn’t care about all of those details.
I’ve read my fair share of mysteries and adventures. Although some detail about a gun may be relevant to the story, I don’t care when that gun was invented, what major battles it was used in, or anything about the manufacturer. I also don’t really care for a political opinion on gun rights that the main character inserts. I only care about the details relevant to the scene that make it exciting and keep me wanting more. I’ve seen too many details about guns inserted into so many books that I roll my eyes whenever I see this flaw in storytelling. The details don’t advance the story. It’s nothing more than the author showing off his or her knowledge. It doesn’t even have to be about guns. It can be about anything such as the French Revolution, gardening, or even the proper way a private investigator conducts surveillance. Too many mundane details are irritating to a reader.
As we review our work, we can dwindle down these mundane parts by asking ourselves two simple questions. What facts elevate the scene and story? What details distract from the scene and story? Too many of the wrong kind of details can weigh down your story.
Telling a story takes a lot of focus. It requires being detailed enough to keep the reader engaged and excited about the pages yet to be turned. However, once we finish our first draft, we quickly realize that although it is important what we put in our story, it is also just as important what we cut out of it. It’s not always easy to decide what to cut out of our story. After all, you may have spent countless hours researching for your book and you’ve learned so much. You want the reader to feel like they’ve learned, too. There’s only one problem with that. Maybe your reader doesn’t care about all of those details.
I’ve read my fair share of mysteries and adventures. Although some detail about a gun may be relevant to the story, I don’t care when that gun was invented, what major battles it was used in, or anything about the manufacturer. I also don’t really care for a political opinion on gun rights that the main character inserts. I only care about the details relevant to the scene that make it exciting and keep me wanting more. I’ve seen too many details about guns inserted into so many books that I roll my eyes whenever I see this flaw in storytelling. The details don’t advance the story. It’s nothing more than the author showing off his or her knowledge. It doesn’t even have to be about guns. It can be about anything such as the French Revolution, gardening, or even the proper way a private investigator conducts surveillance. Too many mundane details are irritating to a reader.
As we review our work, we can dwindle down these mundane parts by asking ourselves two simple questions. What facts elevate the scene and story? What details distract from the scene and story? Too many of the wrong kind of details can weigh down your story.
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