Crash Course: How to Write Details (or, The Little Things)

Art and post by Grace Walters

By Grace Walters

My grandmother is a tall, thin Swedish woman with perpetually arched eyebrows that used to look disapprovingly at the high school students in her English classes. I know her mostly as the woman who used to invent stories about Tom Thumb for my brother and I, combining pieces of fairytales with modern dialogue and places that we recognized. Tom Thumb in these stories frequented sewer grates and corner stores and made friends (and enemies) with the squirrels in our backyard.

My grandmother told me once that telling a good story depended on the teller’s ability to “paint a picture with words” and she did this by setting her fairytales in places that her young, city-dwelling audience of grandchildren knew about. For this reason, I am dedicating this Crash Course to the Gospel of Alice Shaffer and her commitment to Tom Thumb and all the little things.

When we tell stories about our own lives, we tend to gloss over the things that feel especially familiar. The creaky porch steps that we have walked up everyday for a decade, the way our kitchen lights buzz, or the specific cadence of a family members’ voice. Familiarity can make these things fade into the background of our own experiences, and often seem like they are barely worth mentioning when we tell stories from our own lives. However, the things that make your experience specific, will also help the places and people you describe to feel real.

Imagine you are telling a story about an important conversation you had with a family member. What details would help your audience to feel like they are experiencing the action alongside you? How does the family member look when they smile? Do their eyes crinkle? Does the smile spread slowly? What about the setting? What time of year was it? How would this family member’s home feel, or smell, during that season?

Knowing which details will resonate with a reader, or an audience, is a skill like any other. If you are someone who wants to practice that skill, or to get feedback and guidance from an instructor, consider checking out Story Jam’s classes and workshops! Happy Story-telling, friends!