The Devil's in the Details

I had it recently pointed out to me by Paul Stewart that I am a very detail-driven writer. It wasn’t an insult; in fact, it was a compliment, as he said that it took my writing to the next level. RMS seems to agree as he made a similar observation when he awarded me with second place in his unofficial August horror challenge for my story “The Dreamwalker’s Battle”.

Now, you might ask, why am I so detail-driven in my writing? Isn’t the bigger picture more important in writing? Won’t you risk missing the forest for the trees if you get stuck on the smaller details?

While all of this is true, details are incredibly important in a story and even in poems—at least, that’s what I’ve been taught my entire writing and academic life. You see, I majored in English with emphases in Creative Writing and Literary, Criticism, and Theory when I was an undergraduate student at UC Davis. Later, when I got my Master’s through the University of Edinburgh’s online program, I focused on Creative Writing, particularly fiction writing. This education involved heavy emphasis on the explication—or in-depth analysis—of literature, including going line by line, detail by detail, to form a thesis and support it. I had to do this not only as an undergraduate student but also as a graduate student to learn to strengthen my writing. This taught me that details are not only important; they are crucial.

You might be thinking, “Well, that’s only if you’re a scholar and are trying to find meaning in the text. It doesn’t matter if you’re just trying to read the story for pleasure.”

That could not be further from the truth.

The details create everything in the story, not just what the scholar analyzes. They build the world, create the characters and their arcs, and construct the plot. Without the little details that we sprinkle into the story, there would be no story. 

Let’s take, for instance, my story “The Dreamwalker’s Battle”. One of the most detailed passages is this image from just after The Dreamwalker, Amelia, enters Dr. Blanche’s dream world:

A lava field appeared before me. In boiling cauldrons all around, naked bodies writhed in pain as the flesh bubbled and peeled off their bones, yet never did they make a sound. Skeleton dogs howled on distant hills, accompanied by equally skeletal riders on flaming horses guarding over the scene below. One of the riders turned his skull towards me and gave me a demonic grin, sending a shiver down my spine.

--Stephanie Hoogstad, "The Dreamwalker's Battle"

The details in this passage do several things. First of all, they establish the setting. They create a hellish landscape that clearly indicates this is a nightmare world. They also generate a mood that makes the reader feel as though something is off. After all, if something in this world causes the experienced dreamwalker to have a shiver go down her spine, then something must be wrong. Finally, the details set the stakes for the dreamwalker’s mission. People are literally melting in cauldrons; something equally as horrible, if not worse, will most likely happen to Dr. Blanche and perhaps even the dreamwalker if Amelia does not succeed in her quest.

Of course, that does not mean that you can throw in details willy-nilly. They have to do something. They must propel the story forward somehow, whether it’s by developing the character, setting the scene, establishing the mood, or setting up the plot. That’s why, when editing your story, you have to go back to the old days—in some cases, as old as high school (or the equivalent wherever you live)—and remember how to explicate a text so that you can see which details are important to the story. If you realize that they aren’t, then you must do what we all hate: kill your darlings and ax them. To be detail-driven is not to be detail-heavy but to be detail-focused, where you are aware of the details and know how to use them wisely—and when to get rid of them.

What about you? Are you a detail-driven writer? Or do you use details sparingly? Why? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!