For the length of my professional writing career and in my own personal writing, if there’s one message that’s always rang true it’s this: be specific, not general. So I’ve always tried to abide by that principle. And, I suppose, that thinking goes toward other ideas like “use the right word” and, as John Mayer once noted, ”say what you need to say.”
There are countless examples that mark the difference, as Mark Twain said, between “lightning” and a “lightning bug.” And much of this, I’ve found, comes from experiencing what you intend to write about. It’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t Google something. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with learning about a topic at the library.
However, nothing replaces hands-on experience. George Orwell’s involvement with Spanish Revolution of 1936 forming the basis for Animal Farm and 1984. Ernest Hemingway going to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls and writing The Sun Also Rises. Tom Clancy’s first-hand experience and research on military tactics, techniques and procedures in writing The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Risingand others. Michael Creighton’s work as a scientist. John Grisham’s experiences as an attorney.
From my own travels, I’ve seen MiG Alley and Hanoi, Vietnam. There’s nothing like experiencing Mexican food eaten in Iceland (and learning that the Icelandic language is under 1,000 words). There’s no replacement for flying through a hurricane. Loved and lost? Feel for the crazy girl or guy before and know THAT feeling? Understand that in Europe, using your thumb and index finger means “two” rather than your index and ring finger (that means three). That when street bullfights take place in Portugal and the Azores, the bulls tend to be clumsy and fall down a lot on the cobblestone streets.
I garnered almost all of that knowledge as a result of military service. There are other ways, however, to experience and store the details (college, paying for the experience yourself and so on). However, aspiring or established, many times, it’s just impossible to go to London and experience MI-6 tradecraft in person. So, I get that much of what we come to understand about ourselves and the world around us is about personal means, motive and opportunity.
There’s also the notion that being too specific isn’t necessary and I agree with that, too. What I write is based on what’s needed to be said to move the story along. For example, do I say it’s a gun or do I say it’s a Glock G20C with a tactical light and an extended magazine? Do I say the protag is wearing tan pants, or do I say he’s wearing a pair of Sand Dune Sunset Roundtree & Yorke microfiber easy-care expander pleated dress pants? The devil is in the details. Why would I need to say one or the other and, again, how does writing this advance things along?
So, in effect, there are two camps. One camp says, “Give them only the parts they need and let them fill in the rest with their imaginations.” The other camp says, “If I know he’s wearing a pair of Levi’s 501 button fly jeans, a white cotton t-shirt and Chucks, why shouldn’t I say that? It paints the picture.”
I don’t disagree with either. However, I think it’s a matter of experience and necessity. There’s also an argument to be made that not all your readers will know what a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans look like. There’s also the notion that Levi’s didn’t pay me to mention them in my book, so why do it?
In short, I should have all those tools in my toolbox so I can be specific when needed. More is better than less, especially when it comes to knowledge. Research matters. Experience matters. Every writer I’ve met worth reading has knowledge of a broad range of things, especially within their genres.
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This reminds me of something I read in a book on writing humor by Patrick McManus. He has a story about a bicycle that ends up in the middle of an adventure. When this story is done on stage, someone will always tell him, “I had a bicycle just like that!” Yet, he never describes the bicycle in detail or shows the actual bicycle on stage.
I fall into the less is more camp–in most cases. I get irritated when an author brand drops unless it’s something like sex and the city. If they’re overly specific with clothing, etc, I start to feel like they don’t give me enough credit for coming up with the details on my own. But in the case of military, scientific, or medical things I expect it.