Susan Orlean: “People read to get the big picture, but what they really savor is the detail that pops off the page.”

From a post on susanorlean.medium.com headlined “How to Go From Good to Great Using Your Powers of Observation”:

It’s stating the obvious to say that details are everything, but I’ll go ahead and state it: Details really are everything. People read to get the big picture, but what they really savor is the detail that pops off the page, that lodges itself in their minds as they’re reading. It’s the difference between a story that’s just fine and a story that’s terrific.

Details often are part of descriptions. I think a lot about descriptions and how to make them work, and more than that, how to make them memorable. A good example is describing a character in a piece. I used to feel obliged to provide a lot of description of people I was writing about — a sort of catalog of specifics from head to toe.

Then it occurred to me that I wasn’t giving testimony in a legal proceeding, and that descriptions didn’t need to be exhaustively comprehensive. I began to feel that anything specific about a person that was generally true, or statistically likely, didn’t need to be mentioned….

Some years ago, I thought I’d lost my notes for a story. My deadline loomed. In the midst of my utter blackout panic, I decided to write down everything I could remember in hopes of reconstructing what I’d lost. The list I created was all the pungent, surprising bits that had stuck in my mind, rather than the obvious; it was as if my mind had skipped over the drudgery and lingered on what made the experience distinct.

As it happened, I found my notes in the end, but it was a great lesson: The interesting details are the ones you remember effortlessly because they’re the ones that impress themselves in your memory. This is NOT a suggestions to write strictly from memory. What I”m suggesting is that you already have the capacity to sort out the great details from the dull stuff is you let yourself do it.  Maybe…start your story with your notebook closed, and tap out a few descriptions without consulting it. Then you can open your notebook and confirm the details with your notes. Or—my favorite technique—tell the story out loud to a friend and listen to what naturally bubbles up in the telling….
—
From Susan Orlean: I’m an author, a staff writer for The New Yorker, a dog owner, a gardener, a parent, a frequent lecturer/speaker, an occasional teacher, a very occasional guest editor, a once-in-a-blue-moon movie inspiration, and doodler. I’ve written a lot of books, and even more magazine articles.