Precision and Focus
When we talk about precision, we are usually talking about one of two things, the more common one being focus. Obviously, there are any number of ways to describe a scene, but some are better suited for a story than others. For example:
“The wall over there.”
“The wooden wall with the corpse suspended from it by razor wire.”
“The body hung from a beautifully crafted wall, constructed by my father’s mother’s brother from white ash inlaid with ironwood.”
The first example is imprecise. It does not tell us much about the wall, other than its general location, though we don’t know much about that either. If this wall were important for some reason, we would have no way of knowing this, if this was all that the author used in his description. The second and third examples are both more “precise” descriptions, but differ in their focus. This is in fact, where many pieces of description fall flat, because they focus on objects and actions which are not central to the action or motivations of the characters in the story.
Often, you won’t know what to focus on in any given scene until you have actually sat down and written it, and this is in part what makes description challenging. In addition, often what you want to describe in detail is not necessarily important for your story, or to your reader. As such, one important motto to remember is to “murder your darlings.” In general, the passages you enjoy the most are at best inappropriate to the story, or at worst, weaken the story overall, because those passages are not about your story, but about you and your skill as a writer. Just get rid of them, and start over.
When we talk about precise description, what we often mean is the focus of our descriptions. The best way to determine proper focus is to make sure you describe everything that the audience cares about in any given scene. If your next question is, “what does my audience cares about?” then you have some work to do. Go back and read through your story, thinking like a reader. What did you want to know more about? Go back, and fix your descriptions with that in mind.
The very important thing to remember is that just describing something does not make it important. For example, in that third sentence I wrote above, I described the wall in detail, but I am pretty sure no reader would then care about that wall. Rather, they would be thinking, “Wait, there’s a body on the wall? I don’t care about the wall, tell me about the body!” Description is not enough to make someone care, you have to place an object or action within the context of your characters’ goals and motivations, the theme and setting, and the plot before something gains importance.
A more advanced technique that it is good to practice is not focusing on something important in a scene. In a murder mystery for example, the clues are often underemphasized, so that the reader can look back down the line, and see how everything in the plot fell into place. Focus then, is not only crucial for description and setting, but also for moving and developing plot.
Exercise: Find some random pictures on the internet, the stranger the better. As an exercise, write several quick descriptions of the image, using a different focus each time. Next, try to determine which would fit best in a story, and why. This exercise will make it easier for you to determine your focus in your other writing, particularly for complex and confusing scenes.
