Writing With Detail

1. Writing With Detail

2. Why Write With Detail?
…Because detail is the tool that allows you to create a
vivid picture of life experiences, engaging readers by
making people, places, events, and feelings come
alive in their minds.
What is Detailed Writing?
…Detailed writing is also
called “descriptive writing.”
The two terms go together
because you need to add
detail in order to describe
something. The more detail
you add, the more descriptive
your writing becomes.

3. Don’t write,
“It was a pretty yellow flower.”
(The reader won’t
be able to picture
the same flower
you see in your
head if you make a
vague statement
like that!)

4. Types of Detail:
Specific Details:
“Specific” means clearly
defined or identified, so
“specific details” are
concrete words and
phrases used to
describe something.
“It was a sunflower: it was tall
and sturdy with a stalk that made
a crooked arch-shape, and its
center was surrounded by many
thin floppy petals that were not
bright yellow, but a dull mustard
“It was a flower.”
“It was a sunflower.”
“It was yellow.”
“It was a dull mustard color.”
“It had a stalk.”
“It had a thick, crooked stalk.”

5. Types of Detail:
What did it feel like?
“The stalk feels grizzly.”
Sensory Details:
These are the words that
express the feelings of our
five senses: descriptions
of how things look, taste,
smell, sound, and feel.
“The flower had a thick, grizzly stalk
and bushy leaves covered in what
looked like a thin layer of fuzz.
Because it was so tall, it wobbled
forward and back in the wind, always
with its head facing the most direct
rays of warm sunlight. The faint smell
of pollen, sweet but earthy at the same
time, hovered around the plant.”
What did it smell like?
“It smelled like sweet pollen.”
What did it look like?
“It was wobbling in the wind.”

6. Types of Detail:
“It was a sunflower: it was tall and
sturdy with a stalk that made a
crooked arch-shape. The center of the
flower head was large and brown, full
of little seeds, and surrounded by
many thin floppy petals that were not
bright yellow, but a dull mustard color.
The flower had a thick, grizzly stalk
and bushy leaves covered in what
looked like a thin layer of fuzz.
Because it was so tall, it wobbled
forward and back in the wind, always
with its head facing the most direct
rays of warm sunlight. The faint smell
of pollen, sweet but fishy at the same
time, hovered around the plant.”
Take note: we always describe
our sense of sight (we do this
naturally), so when trying to
write with more sensory
details, focus on adding more
of the other four senses.

7. I pet a black dog.

8. The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin, and her
black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight,
reflecting it back like a perfect, deep, dark mirror.

9. The weather was foggy and dreary.

10. It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had
changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite
sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only
a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the dullness of a
winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills,
cloaking them in mist.

11. The woman rose
from her seat and
moved to the
aisle of the airplane.

12. The young woman rose
from her seat, the
plastic armrests slowly
creaking as she lifted
her heavy body
towards the aisle. The
flight had been quiet for
most of the evening,
the luscious amber
skies of the Atlantic
during the summertime,
piercing the window's
gray shutters.

13. My most valuable possession is a guitar.

14. My most valuable possession is an old, slightly warped
blond guitar. It's nothing fancy, just a Madeira folk guitar, all
scuffed and scratched and finger-printed. The body of the
Madeira is shaped like an enormous yellow pear, one that
was slightly damaged in shipping. The blond wood is worn
by years of fingers pressing chords, and now looks gray in
spots, particularly where the pick guard fell off years ago.

15. Overview:
We will practice multiple strategies for writing with detail:
“Sensory Overload” Technique
“Digging for Details” Technique
“Slow Motion” Technique
Using Figurative Language