Better be reading: Knowing how much detail to include

Hi guys, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by, as we continue our month-long series on editing, and what to look for while you start editing your manuscript. For most of us, editing isn’t the fun part, when it comes to writing a book. It’s the complex part, the part many of us dread. And so I wanted to take a little time and make a list for you, of things you should be looking for while you edit your first draft. Besides, once you get good at training your eye to find them while you’re editing, you’ll get better at not writing a lot of these things in the first place.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Over-Explaining Simple Things (or Under-Explaining Complex Ones)

This is one of those things that’s hard to quantify, if I’m being perfectly honest. It’s hard for me to say what’s over or under-explained. But you should have a pretty good idea of this, if you’re a reader (which you should be, if you’re a writer). Sometimes, we writers just give a bit too much information about the simplest of things, or just don’t give enough information when a complex thing happens, or when a complex idea is presented.

Try not to do either of those.

If your character is walking down the street and it’s not an important scene in which he or she is walking down the street, then don’t spend much time on it. Just have them walk down the street. Maybe don’t even mention it at all. But if their walking down the street will be a pivotal moment in their thoughts, then certainly take the time to drag it out and explain a little more of what they’re seeing and what’s going through their mind while they walk.

It’s a delicate balance, and one you should get yourself well acquainted with.

I’ll explain it like this:

Simple things, like a simple handgun, perhaps a Glock, don’t need to be explained or described as more than that. We know what a Glock is. Anybody who watches television knows what a Glock is (or at least has a vague idea of what one is). On the other hand, a sonic death ray… I have no idea what that might look like. I don’t know what it is, or what it does (aside from, probably, killing people?). So take the time to explain what your death ray is, what it looks like, and what it does. It’s a matter of knowing what your readers already know, and what they don’t—always keeping in mind that they don’t have the same imagination you do. But it's also a matter of knowing when to insert a lot of detail, and when to hold back. Again, you'll have a better idea of how to do this based on what books you read.

Train your eyes to look for things like that, to look for moments when your readers may need more detail, and moments when you’ve probably given too much. And then take the time to fix the problem. Tone down your descriptions, when necessary. Amp them up, when you need to. Find the balance for your story.

And remember, above all, do not listen to anyone outside your genre, when it comes to advice about explanations and descriptions.

Don’t do it.

These things work differently across genres, and I don’t want you taking advice from someone who writes a completely different kind of world than you. Thriller writers cannot advise fantasy writers. Romance writers cannot advise those who write horror. There's a reason for that. Staples do not always cross genre, nor do scruples and general writing rules, a lot of the time.

Trust me; it’s better if we stick to our own genre, for things like this.

[love]

{Rani Divine}