The Devil is in the Details

“Attention to detail is not about perfection. It’s about excellence.”
– Chris Denny, Speaker, trainer

All of life’s big moments are built from a series of seemingly insignificant details.

You’ve lived them, and so have I. Many years ago I took a journalism class and my professor recorded me reading news material and delivered it to a friend in TV news. If I had not moderated my team’s presentation … If a job hadn’t opened up just two days before the professor visited his friend …

“Details matter.”
– Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple

Pertinent facts can launch a novel, and one significant detail can launch a sizzling book description.

Ellie was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her. And then she was gone.

Peter and Mary Marshall went on a vacation with their son and daughter but returned without their children. 

If he hadn’t left his phone at her house, she wouldn’t have seen the text message that exposed his indiscretion …

Details play a big role in our lives. They’re especially important when you’re creating characters for your novel.

There are rules for weaving details in works of fiction.

Be sure to plant seeds early in the story if that detail (likely one about the protagonist’s strength or special skills) will play a part in the denouement. 

When using details, use a light hand. It’s easy to overwhelm the reader with minutiae that may only annoy the reader and jerk him or her out of the story. It must …

* be relevant to the story

* create clues or red herrings (in a mystery or thriller, for example)

* be fascinating and add important info about the character in one brief but powerful fact.

I just finished reading Laurie R. King’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, and her details impressed me. She used them to introduce her characters, to expose their faults and frailties, and to reveal habits, character traits, socioeconomic position, discrimination and daily activities. 

She presented fascinating details of a character’s perspective or worldview …

Bees, King’s protagonist said, “are mindless creatures, little more than a tool for putting fruit on trees. The females do all the work; the males do … well, they do little. And the queen … is condemned … to spend her days as an egg machine.”

“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci

Details needn’t always come from the narrator or author, either. The tall protagonist in King’s novel describes herself following her friend in through the door: “quiet and bookish, loping along at Ronnie’s heel like a lugubrious wolfhound.”

Then, courtesy of Ms. King’s skilled pen, the character, Patrick Mason, is revealed. He “was a large, slow-moving, phlegmatic Sussex farmer of fifty-two with hands like something grown from the earth and a nose that changed direction three times.”

All of life’s big moments point to life’s little details that combine to create potentially life-altering events.

I found The Beekeeper’s Apprentice wonderfully entertaining. Even more, I found the author’s masterly use of details inspiring and educational.

Grab a copy and you’ll see what I mean.

Happy writing!