It's All About the Detail When You Write

I was just talking with a friend of mine who just happens to be a radio host and boxing fanatic. He recently wrote a short story, and asked me to read it. I read the story, which had a good plot, but it was missing some of the fine-tuning that helps a reader envision in their minds what they are reading.

It's always about details. It's not just a "flower in the garden", it's "a white, rather wrinkly carnation with specks of pink around the front petals." The same concept goes when describing people and places. The reader wants to see what's going on, and you the fabulous writer need to show them.

My first story I ever submitted was a short about a guy contracting the HIV virus, and using it as a sort of revenge by having unprotected sex with women (I know, I know, it was 1995 and I was young). I submitted it to the Lumpkin Times in Chicago, and they shot it back at me with a rejection note. But it wasn't an automated note, I mean they actually hand wrote one and told me the story was "good, but lacking detail." From that day forward, I followed the advice of the anonymous editor and gave me some insight into fiction writing.

Detail, detail and more DETAIL! The more adjectives you use to describe an object, person or place, the happier your reader will be. Robert E Howard did jsut that in his Conan and Soloman Kane yarns. He sucks the reader in, with well-thought out descriptions of females scantily dressed, lying on silk covered divans as the mighty Conan came to carry them away......