How much detail in a novel is too much? Specifically how much are you willing to learn about—let’s say—running a hardware store. What if the information about screws and drills and rakes is pertinent to the story or creates the atmosphere that makes the story go?
I am wrestling with this now. In short stories, it was pretty easy—just a sentence or two was all I had space for. But now I can tell you lots and lots about hardware stores. I studied up on them and there is a case for putting a lot of this in the novel. It will reek of wood and metal and fertilizer if I do. And jeez, I did spend months learning about how they do the inventory and what kind of things customers say when they come into the store.
I know it depends on how interesting it is and how it adds to the story but do you usually want to get back to the action? Do you usually think, “All right already with how bolts work? Give me a murder about now.
Save me from drowning in my details before it’s too late. See, even here there is too much detail.
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6 comments:
You could do it the Melville way: spend one chapter on story, the next on hardware, the following on story, then hardware, then story... easy peasy!
That;s kinda what I've been doing but it still feels like it might be too much.
Oh, sheesh, I was kidding! I was not impressed with Moby Dick, actually, for that reason.
How hard is it to figure out what readers need to know, out of all that exposition? What's important to the story and/or the characters?
Simon Wood had a good post about just this issue over at Murderati today...
Don't worry about it while you're writing the rough draft. Do as much as you want or feel is right and then when the draft is COMPLETE you can go back and figure out what is too much. Me though, I usually go for a sentence or two here and there and that's about it. I like stripped down description but sometimes it takes five paragraphs to get that perfect one sentence detail.
I agree with Bryon. Stop worrying about all this. That's what a second draft is for. Probably you'll cut the hardware stuff way down but put it all in now. Then your research will be used.
Why is it I feel you're looking for ways out of writing this novel. I read this second.
It's because of the way I usually write short stories. Every day I sit down and rewrite the entire short story. Kind of crazy, I know.
So I am now reviewing the entire novel which I left four weeks ago. And I'm rewriting it as I read.
A bad thing and I will immediately give it up and move forward. Thanks.
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