Details

As students, when we first learn "how to" write, our use of detail is something that is often emphasized. It is always pointed out to us in pieces of literature we have to read for class and marked down in our pieces that are turned in. When I was younger, I would always work harder and strive to have as much detail as possible. As I got older, though, I soon realized that a lot of the detail I was writing was just boring and not useful. A little while later, in ninth grade English class, I had to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and that was when I lost any kind of positive feelings I had towards the use of detail. He just rambled on and on about things that ended up not even being important to the book or the purpose of the book, and it just made the book drag. Because of that, it was the only book in High School that I never finished reading for class.


While I was beginning to read this week's assignment in Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, I knew that the point that was going to have to be known this week would be about the importance of detail. The difference between what I was expecting and what actually was, however, was that Goldberg talked about how detail is not just about talking about the little things in life, but really, the big things are just as important, or even more important. For example, she says on the bottom of page 81 "We think of detail as small, not the realm of the cosmic mind or these big hills of New Mexico. That isn't true. No matter how large a thing is, how fantastic, it is also ordinary."

Another topic Goldberg discussed was the importance of pushing forward in your writing, because that is where all the deep, emotional stuff is that people want to read about. She also says that writing is an outlet for us to use to get through things. An example she gave was a girl whose mother died of cancer who was writing about it for class. Goldberg said that she could feel that there was something missing, so she told the girl to keep writing, even if time is out, even if it causes her to cry. Pushing to the end helps a person form detail because it is closer to them than they if they are just writing from what is on their surface. Because it hits so close to them, the reader is better able to understand the author and the piece and have an emotional connection with both, as well.

Although I still am not a fan of over-the-top detail in writing, reading about it this week has helped me see that there is a way to make the detail work so that a person can be drawn to the piece and author and help them understand both better. Goldberg emphasizes the importance of "good" detail, rather than the boring, "describe-the-hairpin" detail that is seen so often in some pieces of work.