Making Details Purposeful
Posted: February 11th, 2011, 9:25 pm
I just had an excellent exchange on the new blog post thread and I really wanted to encourage others to throw their pennies in on the topic.
I blogged about not letting the pointless and the purposeless into a novel. No idle chatter. No coincidence. No blind luck. I also mentioned no pointless detail.
Guardian brought up these points:
I blogged about not letting the pointless and the purposeless into a novel. No idle chatter. No coincidence. No blind luck. I also mentioned no pointless detail.
Guardian brought up these points:
And my thoughts were these:Guardian wrote:The only point that with I can't agree is; MInor details. Minor details used to give color to worlds, characters, places and making these things imaginable and believable (Realism simulation.). These details doesn't have to be important at all, yet they can be in the novel anytime. These details used to give the necessary color, otherwise everything would be gray and cliche. If major details has no meaning in the story, now that's a greater problem. That's the true Chekov's Gun effect. The best way to work with minor details is to mask their presence in the story. They won't bother the reader as it's going to touch them on subconscious level.
So what do you guys think? Is there a level of detail that is so fine or so inconsequential that you are more likely to make a random or maybe just less-than-purposeful choice about them? Is it even really possible, or do you think it's possible that subconscious meaning guides the automatic choice?Margo wrote:I absolutely agree that these details provide color and a certain depth, but I think they are more powerful if they are not random and not treated as (significantly) less important than major plot details. Though there will be variation across cultures, these details will cue certain reactions and assumptions for a reader and can take the place of telling and more blatant character descriptions. So, no they don't have to be important, but why waste the space and opportunity when more intentional choices do more than add a color or shape? It is because these details accumulate in the subconscious that I prefer not to waste them.