In a new post on her blog, Tiffany Yates Martin says digging deep to find specific details can make your writing come alive. “Just as we as writers can’t address the possible weaknesses in our stories until we understand exactly what they are, readers can’t fully engage with those stories without a clear, concrete, granular sense of detail,” she says.
Unfortunately, writers often rely on vague or generalized descriptions. This makes it harder for your reader to feel immersed in your world and may inhibit their ability to connect with your protagonist. TYM shares before and after examples that show how clear, concrete writing creates more empathy in the reader. The scenarios presented by the writer become less theoretical, more alive. The characters have breathing room.
It may sound counterintuitive, but a few specific details allow the reader to use their imagination to fill in what’s missing. In contrast, vague or indifferent description leaves out too much information, which raises questions the reader shouldn’t need to ask.
“The more concrete and granular a picture the author creates, the more it may resonate with each reader’s direct experience of the universal feelings attached to these situations and events,” Yates Martin writes. “It’s the effect that we connect with, not the cause—meaning that despite perhaps wildly differing personal experiences, we can understand feeling minimized, unseen, unhappy, etc., by reflecting on times when we felt those things ourselves—albeit perhaps for different reasons.”
Specifics also add depth to motivation and goals. “As humans we don’t deeply engage with abstracts; we crave detail, specificity, and most of all connection on a human level,” Yates Martin adds. “We understand story through the universal human reference points we all share.”
