Writers are frequently advised: show, don’t tell. What this means is that it is crucial to address the senses. Vivid writing contains concrete, significant details.
- · Concrete means that there is an image, something that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched.
- · Significant means that the specific image also suggests an abstraction, generalization, or judgment.
- · Detail means that there is a degree of focus and specificity.
The notion of detail is important to the image because it moves away from the generalized and toward the particular. For example, creature is a generalized notion, hard to see except in the vaguest way. Animal is still vague; four-legged animal is a little more specific; domestic animal a little more; dog narrows the field; mixed-breed Shepard we can see; old Sammy asleep on the red rug, his haunches twitching in his dream brings the dog into sharp focus in our minds. At the same time this last sentence resonates with the ideas of age and uneasy sleep. If it said his teeth bared and gnashing in his dream, we’d also guess that old Sam has a capacity for meanness. Notice how the narrowing specificity of the noun invites active verbs.
Begin with the largest general categories you can think of – minerals, food, structures—thing big. Then narrow the categories step by step, becoming more specific until you have single detailed images. Try it again with the same large categories but narrow in another direction. Can you, without naming a quality, make your images suggest an idea or direct our attitude toward the things you describe?