What are some examples of details?

Answer 1

Examples and Observations:

• "Details are never simply embellishments. They serve the narrative in terms of dramatization, characterization, structure, and style. . . .

  "Over and over again we're told that good, active writing is concrete rather than abstract. It's specific rather than general. And it's in these notions of active writing that details make all the difference. A detail must be both significant and specific."

  (Joanne Meschery, "Details! Details! Details!" Writers Workshop in a Book, ed. by Alan Cheuse and Lisa Alvarez. Chronicle Books, 2007)

• "Sometimes it takes only one or two details to light up a character for your readers. . . . The old man's carefully parted hair suggests that he has not totally given up. The tinny clatter of cheap crockery implies that the restaurateur has fallen on hard times. The sullen teenager's one-shouldered shrug connotes indifference tinged with contempt."

  (Monica Wood, Description. Writer's Digest Books, 1995)

• "Bad writers never examine anything. Their inattentiveness to the detail of their prose is part and parcel of their inattentiveness to the detail of the outside world."

  (Clive James, "Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Lessons on How to Write." Cultural Amnesia, 2007)