How much detail should you add to trivial actions or surroundings? | Writer Questions #13

When the actions or surroundings are important, you should add as many details as it's required. That's clear. What about trivial stuff? Examples: He sat on the floor and drank a beer. He sat on the floor, clicked open a beer can, and gulped from it. He sat cross-legged on the floor, clicked open a can of Budweiser, and took a few gulps from it. Same with mundane surroundings: He walked along a sidewalk. He walked along a tree-lined sidewalk. He walked along a sidewalk lined with bald zelkova trees. How much detail do you add in this type of situation?

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Dear Writer,

You answered your own question: "You should add as many details as [are] required."

The principle is no different for mundane details and important ones. Your question is difficult to directly address because it operates in terms of isolated examples. At the least, we would need the broader context of a whole chapter or passage to determine if a certain level of detail per instance is or is not appropriate.

What makes a detail "mundane" in your work is up to you. In a rainforest, trees are mundane. In a post-apocalyptic setting, they could be the seeds of a hopeful future; not mundane at all. As the writer, it's up to you to highlight the stakes, to distinguish the mundane from the significant.

Submit work to readers and ask for feedback about the level of detail in given instances. You should also consider how much detail you want to communicate. Is it crucial for you to engage some of the senses in one place or another? What are you trying to achieve in chapter one, seven, or thirty? Know the target you're aiming at.

Best,

DRM