Milton Erickson, Abused Children, and the "Always-a-Robin" Syndrome (Part Five)

We've been talking about using observant details, and last time we discussed two practical steps the writer can take to increase his or her skills in that area.

Today, let's finish out the series by tackling that last step:

3) Select carefully and thoughtfully, based on your audience and genre

This is pretty intuitive...Much of it is what I call Standard Writing Advice (SWA).....  That doesn't make it bad advice... it just means that it's frequently repeated by a host of writing teachers (I figure if I hear the same concept from 5 or more sources, it's SWA).

a) Pay attention to the needs of your audience. Tom Clancy's readers expect plenty of techno-detail (like the inner workings of an atomic bomb). Nora Roberts, not so much.

b) As a gross generalization, literary fiction demands more detailed description than series westerns, series romance, series anything.

c) Page count counts. In a epic-length excursion like Moby Dick, you can afford a chapter of detail into the life and times of Cetaceans (admit it, you skipped it anyway...). In a 175-page YA novel, feel free to leave that out.

d) Don't stop to worry about robins in your first draft. But later, substitute something less commonplace.

e) Get it right. (Soapbox Warning!) I cringe every time an author mixes up the professional roles of the psychiatrist and the psychologist. Or worse yet, (As I once found in a bad Christian novel) freely alternating between the two, as if they were synonymous. That sound you hear is your credibility falling. Because whether it's true or not, it looks like you didn't care enough to do your homework.

Read up on that particular kind of gun. Do some research into your character's chosen profession. What exactly does that bird's call sound like?

I doubt if it's humanly possible to get every detail right in a novel-length work, but I don't think it hurts to make that your goal...Because someone out there knows about the inner workings of a nuclear bomb, or how fast a Continuous-Extrusion Blow Molder can spit out molten plastic. And if we goof up, they'll call us on it.

What are your rules of thumb for choosing and using details?