Since I’ve been writing more fiction lately, I’ve been paying far more attention to the details of my surroundings. Moment to moment, so much is happening. Every so often, when I’m walking to the gym or the supermarket or the movie theater, I stop and ask myself, “How would I describe what’s happening right now?”
Sometimes the words come easily, as if it was already written before I started thinking about it. Other times the words don’t come at all.
And it’s strange when the words don’t come at all because you can see what is happening right in front of you.
Let me give you an example. Let’s pretend you’re watching a bird.
The bird picked up a piece of bread and then flew across the street, dropping the bread before picking it up again.
Depending on where you’re at in the story, the italicized sentence above might work fine. But we can all agree that it really only describes actions that are occurring, and it probably leaves a little too much to the imagination.
What type of bird was it? What type of bread was it? How did the bird fly across the street? Was it quick or slow or frantic or calm? Why did the bird drop the bread? Why did it pick it up again?
There’s endless variations of how you can write this sentence. And more importantly, it’s your job as the writer to find the one that is most true.
How can so much be packed into one simple moment?
These are the details that now consume me.
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Since I’ve been writing more fiction lately, I’ve been paying far more attention to the details of my surroundings. Moment to moment, so much is happening. Every so often, when I’m walking to the gym or the supermarket or the movie theater, I stop and ask myself, “How would I describe what’s happening right now?”
Sometimes the words come easily, as if it was already written before I started thinking about it. Other times the words don’t come at all.
And it’s strange when the words don’t come at all because you can see what is happening right in front of you.
Let me give you an example. Let’s pretend you’re watching a bird.
The bird picked up a piece of bread and then flew across the street, dropping the bread before picking it up again.
Depending on where you’re at in the story, the italicized sentence above might work fine. But we can all agree that it really only describes actions that are occurring, and it probably leaves a little too much to the imagination.
What type of bird was it? What type of bread was it? How did the bird fly across the street? Was it quick or slow or frantic or calm? Why did the bird drop the bread? Why did it pick it up again?
There’s endless variations of how you can write this sentence. And more importantly, it’s your job as the writer to find the one that is most true.
How can so much be packed into one simple moment?
These are the details that now consume me.
