: Re: Adding Detail/"Filling" the story I've got a lot of story fragments that contain the major plot, but that are also very short because everything moves so fast. What I find a lot in Novels

Focus on the effect you are trying to create in the reader. Maybe the most important of those is the emotional impact you are trying to create.

Then: Choose the details that help to create that emotional impact. What details would help us to understand the character better? To understand what the character wants, and why it's so important to them? To understand the character's strengths and limitations? To understand the character's state of mind?

An important element of this is that it is not just the detail per se that is important, but the POV character's noticing the detail. If two people walked into a room, they'd each notice different details. Which details each character notices, and which each overlooks, tells us great deal about the character's personality, attention, and state of mind. And this in turn helps us to understand the emotional impact of their actions, thoughts, and situation.

What would your POV character notice?

My favorite example is from Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus. About two thirds of the way through the book, the narrator character Serenus Zeitblom walks into a room to discover Clarissa dead on the couch. Then, for several paragraphs of fine detail, he describes the couch. That he focuses on the couch is very creepy, and exemplifies just how cold Serenus is.

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: Re: Adding Detail/"Filling" the story I've got a lot of story fragments that contain the major plot, but that are also very short because everything moves so fast. What I find a lot in Novels

More posts by @Murray831

: How long has the "scene" method been used for writing a novel? I've noticed that many authors discuss "building" their novels using scenes as the fundamental building block. Be it by software

: College Application Essay Opening and Help I currently have to write an application for college that I wish to go to over the summer. I have no idea where to turn and what to write. The

: Combatting Excessive Familiarity Of Writing Since writing my last question, I've been able to write a handful more items and have tried to nail down some more specific items I can ask about

: Must every piece of speech get its own paragraph? I've had a few people read pieces of narrative writing I've done, and they seem to take issue with the fact that I sometimes put a piece

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