: Re: Should I describe a character deeply before killing it? So, I have this little story I would like to tell. It's about a girl and how she's forced to take a journey with the man who has

@Fox6458700

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Your question highlights an important divide in writing:

What is important information, and what is important information to the current point of the story.

We the readers don't need to know every last detail right from the start, but You the writer need to establish the core elements for yourself before you start working with them, and you can build out from there as needed while the story itself progresses.

To address this it can be good to use carefully structured notes that go along side your writing process. Use them to establish any important facts or points as you come up with them, or any aspects that would be important to the overarching consistency within the story.

These notes do not need to be excessively detailed prior to writing, but it is important to keep an eye on things as you go to avoid critical potential conflicts.

Deciding that the father was a strong and brave man might cause a conflict if you decide to also describe them as scared of clowns and spiders... You would want to highlight that in your notes as something to address: Do you rewrite and remove being scared of clowns and spiders? Do you walk back them being brave and strong? Do you find somewhere to reinforce that they were strong and brave but scared of clowns and spiders?

From the start your notes on the character might be simple: The father, a name, rough age, loved by the daughter.

Short, sweet, simple.

Then take those notes and reflect them in the story. Show that the daughter loves the father, not based on what was going on in the past, but how the daughter thinks, feels, and reacts at the present in the story. Show it through her dialogue directed towards the other character, and her actions. Then Reinforce it through how you describe and have the killer act.

Remember that the story doesn't need to lay out every last single detail in stone for the reader, but can instead be more of a framework guiding the reader's own imagination. We humans can 'read between the lines' surprisingly well, and fill in details as needed without having every last thing spelled out for us.

[I've just gotten back Test Reader commentary back on a project that has nothing but dialog exchanges between two characters for the opening chapter, running commentary and banter about their current situation with nothing written outside of the " ", not even names. And it apparently worked shockingly well, and my test readers all understood what was going on. Do not be trapped by the idea that you have to hold the reader's hand every single step of the way.]

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