{"id":1333,"date":"2021-03-24T13:01:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2021-03-24T13:01:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:01:40","slug":"a-wild-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/24\/a-wild-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wild Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 18, 2020, SilverSky wrote, I\u2019m writing an experimental book where I play with things like gender, age, and the five senses. I\u2019m working on each of these one at a time. I\u2019m almost finished with the gender and age part but, I\u2019m coming up on senses and I\u2019m trying to figure out a balance between writing too many details and not enough. For example, I think too many details would sound like, \u201cI walked into the dark room. I heard the creaking of the floor boards as a large, grey rat ran across the dark oak floor. The room smelled dusty and moldy with a hint of smoke. It was so dusty that I could taste the dirt on my tongue. I placed my hand on a cold, rough table and a floor board began to break beneath me\u201d or is that just enough details? Would it be better to briefly write what I\u2019m trying to say like, \u201cI walked into the dark room. A rat ran across the floor. Everything smelled dusty. I put my hand on a rough table and the floor gave out below me.\u201d Or not?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess what I\u2019m trying to ask is, how can you find the balance between too many details and not enough? And, does the book get boring after a lot of details or does it get more interesting?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know you already answered a few questions about details but I thought maybe you could elaborate on using the 5 senses when writing details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A discussion broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

future_famous_author: I haven\u2019t read a book that went in too much detail in a while\u2026 but the book I am reading right now does it in a very interesting way. The author doesn\u2019t usually explain how things look, except characters, but even then only sometimes, but when the character is coming across a new place (castle, house, field, woods, etc.) she seems to explain every detail! While this is a time when details are necessary for the reader to fully understand the story, I don\u2019t think that she should go so in detail with the setting, and then completely forget about other things.
Also, I think that your first example may have been a little too much, but I also think that it could be condensed. Maybe like this: \u201cI walked into the dark, dusty room, smelling of mold and smoke. There was so much dust that it coated my tongue, and the table that I placed my hand upon as a rat ran across the squeaky floorboards. As the squeaking of the rat disappeared, a floorboard began to break beneath me.\u201d I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not any better at description than you are, and there is really no right way, but that\u2019s just how I feel like it should go. Fewer words, almost the same amount of description. Also, if you don\u2019t pile all the description on the reader at once, adding details as a character explores a place, they may be more likely to grasp what you are saying, and to enjoy it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead: I think the important part is to pick the details that are important to your character. Are they scared of rats? Allergic to dust, mold, or smoke? Is there something special about the table?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

future_famous_author: And not just what is important to your character, but what will be important to the plot. Will the rats spread a disease? Will the darkness mean they can\u2019t see their enemy? Does the smoke show that there was a fire, one that killed an important character? Does the dust show that this place has not been occupied in a long time, meaning that whoever they thought might be there is long gone?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erica: Make sure that all of the details you include are reasonably observable in the situation. For instance, in your first example, you mentioned that the floor was made of oak. Could your character really tell what wood the floorboards were made of in a dark room, or did she already know? Questions like that help me make sure that descriptive details don\u2019t go overboard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

future_famous_author: Oh, I\u2019ve never thought about it that way! That\u2019s interesting!
Also, if your character did mention that it was oak, maybe it\u2019s because she has a past with wood, because a relative taught her what different kinds of wood looked like. Thinking about what a certain character might say about a certain place might help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christie V Powell: I\u2019m just throwing in a resource here. I enjoyed \u201cWord Painting: A Guide To Writing More Descriptively\u201d by Rebecca McClanahan. It\u2019s a whole book filled with tips for describing things, and the language she uses, both examples and narration, show that she knows what she\u2019s talking about.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead: I hope it\u2019s ok to throw this in too. I went to HS with the author. He\u2019s a writer, English teacher, and cartoonist, and he illustrated the book with cartoons: https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Teaching-Students-Writing-Visual-Vivid\/dp\/0545147816<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are terrific! I particularly agree that detail supports both plot and character development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these may be less important in a work of experimental fiction than in other literature. Here\u2019s a link to a Wikipedia article on experimental literature: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Experimental_literature<\/a>. Writers of experimental fiction may expect more of their readers than other writers do and may not feel the need to create a page-turner. They may believe their readers will make the effort, to be interested in elements other than plot, character, dialogue, and setting–elements, for example, like language and the unexpected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such literature is a bit like poetry. Poets expect their readers to linger over a poem, to let it unfold gradually, some poems more gradually than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re writing experimental fiction and playing with the five senses, what\u2019s too much or not enough is entirely up to us, and I\u2019d say that in this case more is better. I like the dirt-on-the-tongue example. If we\u2019re exploring taste, for example, we can keep going. The MC tastes the dirt. How does it taste? Salty? Bitter? Chickeny? Does it dissolve or linger? Does it call up memories of other odd tastes? Think of this as Alice following the white rabbit down the hole of the taste of dust. The dust can taste like the color blue. It can make the MC\u2019s tongue swell\u2013or shrink. It can affect her other senses. She can smell in the dirt its history. Readers can be treated to a geology lesson on the origins of the dirt in the last ice age. A woolly mammoth can appear. Enter the other senses, as the MC looks into the small, angry eyes, jumps on the mammoth for a wild ride, feels its coarse hair, aches from the impact as the beast rears, hears its excited squeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can stretch whatever we like. We can report on the vision of the mammoth, which we make up. Its vision is the sense of sight just as ours is. What would it see if it were presented with an eye chart? Our MC can imagine what she looks like to the mammoth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so on. Especially in a first draft, I\u2019d suggest writing a lot. Later, we can decide what should stay. For this, I\u2019d suggest choosing the parts we enjoy. The reader can take it or leave it. We shouldn\u2019t judge good and bad for this (or for anything else, as I often say).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also go into the sensory ability of our MC, whose senses can be heightened or reduced. In plot terms, the loss of sensation can call forth a crisis, as may its opposite, a painful intensity. That can be the tension or part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that sensation is a subset of touch. Or maybe it\u2019s another sense. Please weigh in if you have an opinion. I\u2019m thinking of physical pain or a racing heart or the feeling of fever or sneezing or itching, being hot, being chilly. We can delve into those too. Some of these have an emotional side, but the physical is there too. In experimental writing, we can let ourselves run on with sensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re not writing experimental fiction, then the amount of detail does matter, mostly when it comes to pacing. Too much detail will slow things down. Two little, and the reader won\u2019t be able to imagine what\u2019s going on and enter into it. Here too, though, I suggest not worrying much in the first draft. Too much is better than too little, because it\u2019s easier to cut than add when we revise. We do want our details to support character development, plot, and setting, as Melissa Mead and future_famous_author suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also a sense of wonder if we\u2019re writing fantasy\u2013or even experimental fantasy. Wonder can be introduced into any sense: the dirt that tastes like the sky with a teaspoon of honey and smells like peaches; the floorboards that creak out a song; the rat in tap shoes that gives the floorboard\u2019s song a beat; the wall mold that, when a light is lit, depicts a forest scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as Erica says, we have to make sure that the details are ones that our MC can experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write a paragraph on the (imagined) taste of dirt. If you can, write a page. Do not taste anything that may harm you! No poisoning for the sake of art!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 From the POV of the woolly mammoth, write its sensations when the human appears. Write at least a page. If you like, turn it into a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Your MC is in on her way to meet a friend for an important reason\u2013you decide why. On the way, by whatever means of transportation you choose, her sensations go haywire: intensify, fade, play tricks. Despite what\u2019s happening to her, she needs to reach her destination. Write the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 18, 2020, SilverSky wrote, I\u2019m writing an experimental book where I play with things like gender, age, and the five senses. I\u2019m working on each of these one at a time. I\u2019m almost finished with the gender and age part but, I\u2019m coming up on senses and I\u2019m trying to figure out a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,330],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}