Do you have the specs?

 

Thank you linuxmail - pixabay

After a few months of writing for the local newspaper I became enamored with specifics. The more details I could pull out of an event, get from an interviewee, add to the color of my observations, the better.

And my readers commented on it.

But not in the way I expected. “Good story,” they would say in a general sort of way. “I was surprised so many people were willing to go on record,” or “It was like I was there.”

Or my favorite, “It sounds like you were there. Were you there? I didn’t see you.”

My favorite because, like all good journalists, I practiced invisibility. The best reporters are the ones that write the story in front of them, not the small portion of the story in which they were involved. Reporters who call attention to themselves miss the majority of what is going on. They miss the details.

They fail at the specifics.

But it’s a lot of work.

Specs on any job are vital and labor intensive.

Also time intensive.

And that’s why people don’t like doing it. Short cuts. Miscommunication. Mistakes.

In writing, as in life, specifics make a dull story come alive.

Be specific.

 

_RHTM_

 

Come join me for Five Minute Friday. You can be late (like I was today – Saturday) and you get to be included in a group of lovely writers who support one another.