: Re: When to be specific and when to let context fill in the holes? Some examples: Half-crouching, I went over to the railing and pointed my flashlight down (to the ground). It was approximately

@Kevin153

Vote Up Vote Down

These two examples make the scene more specific in a particular way: By adding modifiers. In these cases: By adding adverbial phrases.

Your temptation to add the modifiers is telling you something.
Some word elsewhere in your sentences may be too abstract.

Your concern about adding words is telling you something.
Some words elsewhere in your sentences may be too abstract.

My recommendation.
When you are puzzling about whether to add a modifier,
look at the other words.
One or more of them is probably abstract enough
that they don't paint a vivid picture.
See if you can find stronger words.

For example:

Cath pressed her hand to her nose.

"Covered" was unnecessarily abstract.
"Pressed her hand" is more vivid.

Often you can remove a word that is not carrying its weight:

Half-crouching, I went over to the railing and pointed my flashlight at the ground.

"Down" added little to the sentence. Drop it.

Caveats.
I'm not recommending, as some advisors do, that you eliminate all modifiers.
Modifiers have all sorts of wonderful uses,
such as
expressing the POV character's attitude
or improving rhythm and lyricality.

But if the only function
that a modifier serves
is to supply details to make the scene vivid,
see if you can find another way to accomplish that.

Sometimes a modifier is the only way I can think of
to supply the necessary details.
So I modify, shrug, and move on.

(0)

Login to post a comment!