Details, Details, Details!
“The devil is in the detail” is an idiom that refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the … earlier phrase, “God is in the detail” expressing the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; i.e. details are important.”
Small, concrete details are usually the difference between a story that works and a story that fails, between a good piece of writing and a great piece of writing. If we rush through a scene, we get a piece that is full of holes and will not satisfy the reader. If we take our time on the rewrite and read through the piece, checking for clarity, vivid descriptions, good characterization, authentic dialogue, easy transitions, check our spelling and grammar, offer prose that move the story at a good pace, advancing the theme and plot measurably, we’ll be rewarded with a much greater sense of satisfaction and award our audience with a story worth reading.
Here’s an example, comparing a good and a bad paragraph ~
Good Writing: Critical Thinking!
The weather in 1816 Europe was abnormally wet, keeping many inhabitants indoors that summer. From April until September of that year, “it rained in Switzerland on 130 out of the 183 days from April to September” (Phillips, 2006). Unlike today, one could not simply turn on a television or click through the Internet in order to entertain oneself. Instead, it was much more common for the educated people of the day to spend time reading, discussing well-known authors and artists of the day, playing at cards and walking in their gardens and walking paths.
If you were Mary Shelley in the company of Byron and others, you amused each other by reading out loud, sharing a common interest in a particular book, and sharing with the others your own writing. In her introduction to Frankenstein, her explanation of how this extraordinary novel came to be was due, at least in part, to the weather and the company (Shelley, 1816). “I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and …we occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts… These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation” (Shelley, as quoted in Phillips, 2006).
Sample Bad paragraph
I hate wet and reiny days. It rained a lot in 1816…. a lot – like everyday; the weather in Europe was abnormally wet because it rained in Switzerland on 130 out of the 183 days from April to September. If I was Mary Shelley I might decide to write a book too. Afterall, it was the onnly thing you could do without TV or anything. She said that she “passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva…we occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts… These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation” So, people were stuck inside and bored. Mary Shelley decided to write a book becuase it was so awful outside. I can totally see her point, you know? I guess I would write a novel if there was nothing else to do.
It takes patience to give our writing its due so that we avoid leaving the details and finesse in the dust. The old cliché rings true: “It’s the little things in life (and in a story) that count.”
.Enjoy.
Jasmyne