The World Is Made Of Small Things

This is an article I wrote for the Writing Tips and Advice section of the lushstories.com forums.

Small things and characters

Some stories have characters that feel three-dimensional from the start, and you get instantly pulled inside by them. Others (and often our own) aren't written that much different, but the characters just aren't that compelling. There's description for these characters in both kinds of stories, but some just don't work.

Often, I've found, this is due to the smallest things - seen from a plot perspective, even completely unimportant ones. In an age where we're overwhelmed with visual impressions and tv characters, it's sometimes hard to build a unique picture of a person in our minds from the descriptions of body features and clothing alone.

There's a solution though. Sprinkle in little eye catchers. Stick a band-aid on your roguish male character's shoulder. Put the bobby pins in your female character's hair in unevenly. Take your main character out of the house wearing mismatched socks. Have the buckle on their leather purse be cracked or a letter from the word on their print t-shirt be missing. Something unimportant in the scope of the story, but something you'd immediately notice if you were there in real life.

Small things and the world around

What works for characters, also works for the world in which they live. Don't just let your main character "walk up the drive" when he gets home after a boring taxi ride you've already had to describe. Let him sigh when he looks at the grey fence post that's askew. Let her smile when she looks at the ugly Halloween pumpkin the neighbor's kids have gifted her. Let the windows be dusty, even though they were cleaned just a week ago. Put an empty soda can in the drink holder in the car or let a crumpled paper roll back and forth on the floor of the subway.

Why does that even work?

There are a few reasons why this does work, and it's not high science.

First, it's unexpected, and thus it prevents a story from getting boring. We've all probably read tens, if not hundreds of breakfast scenes, and we know how these go. If we need to write one of these and it doesn't suddenly turn into debauchery or an argument, we've got to keep the readers on their toes. What we do by adding small things like a wrinkled cereal pack or a smiley sticker on the toaster is laying false trails, but small enough ones so the reader doesn't get annoyed.

Then, there's familiarity. Small imperfections tell the reader this doesn't happen in a perfect glamour world, and other little details tell them that our world doesn't start and end with the story. It gives a sense of reality. If we're lucky, the reader might even recognize some of the small things and say, hey, that's just like at home, or just like someone I know. We humans are suckers for familiarity, so let's not disappoint our readers.

How to come up with the small things

The answer is simple: start watching. Just look with this in mind when you walk down the corridor to your office and encounter a colleague. Do they just walk down and nothing else? Often, yes, but not always. You'll find that one may hold a fork in his hand and wiggle it right before lunch. Another one is carrying a cup of water that is filled to the brim and tip-toes in an attempt not to spill it. When you walk home from work, look at each house that you pass and ask yourself what small imperfections you can see at the first glance. When you visit family, do the same in the kitchen, or living room, or garden (better don't tell them, though, unless you don't like them and don't mind being barred from visiting for a while).

It doesn't take long until you find more and more of these small things - it's not that you didn't notice them before, but once you look out for them, you'll be able to remember them when you need a little spice for your story.