Writing Tip: Be Specific

If you want your reader to remember your book, you need to be specific.

Sometimes, we think being broad will reach more people because it’s more relatable, but really, when we are general, we speak to no one.

It’s when we are specific that we connect with people.

Take wildfires, for example. When you hear that 93,000 acres have burned, it doesn’t mean anything because it’s too broad, too general. We know it’s a lot, but it doesn’t affect us on a personal level.

But when you hear a story about a person who narrowly escaped with their senior dog, and now grieves the loss of their first home alongside everyone else in their town?

That’s when we feel the impact of wildfires, that’s when we care, that’s when we take action.

Specificity In Action

Let’s say I wrote this sentence, “Eva meticulously made her breakfast, then scrubbed her dishes and hands, like she did every morning. A clean house was a safe house.”

In this sentence, you learn a few things about Eva—she makes breakfast in a particular way, she keeps to a routine, she likes things clean because it makes her feel safe.

Why but does she do those things? What do they mean to her? What do they say about her?

Now, let’s make this sentence more specific.

“Eva cracked three eggs into the glass bowl she used every morning. After measuring two teaspoons of butter into the warming pan, she whipped the eggs with a fork until not a speck of white could be seen amongst the yoke. In a world where so little was under her control, blending eggs was a ritual. She needed them smooth, homogenous, perfect.

“She placed a drop of soap on the dish scrubber she’d knit from the tulle of her daughter’s final Halloween costume—a lion’s mane had billowed around her cheeks made rosy by the cold. Eva scoured the fork, tines and handle both. Once the metal was free of any trace of salmonella, she scrubbed her hands until they, too, could not sicken her. Her chapped skin ached as she dried it, and the towel came away with a watery, pink smear, but she didn’t mind. Bleeding skin was better than contaminated skin.”

Now, you know a lot more about Eva, not everything, but enough to feel connected to her and interested in learning more.

You can probably make some educated guesses about her past, her fears, and her life, and hopefully, you want to know more about her story.

Without specifics, we have nothing to hold onto. With them, we get to hold on to a character.

Give It a Try

Find a passage in your novel that feels bland and spice it up with some specificity.

If you’d like, send me your passage! I’d love to read it.