Details

Hey guys :) I thought I would move a little bit from the typical elements of a story and focus on one of the nitty gritty details of writing. Detail is something present in every story, its what helps a reader envision what is going on in the story. The very delicate thing about details is that you can easily go too much or not enough.

Some writers overwhelm with their detail, a classical example is Herman Melville's "Moby Dick". Some people feel like the book could have been written much shorter but is only the length it is because Melville included so much (and some people feel unnecessary) detail. In my opinion, detail is something that flows with the preference of the writer. But if you don't know where to stop, my advice is this: write with enough detail to draw a picture in the mind of your reader, but not enough to overwhelm the plot.
Personally, I really enjoy including a lot of  detail about characters, explaining their looks, their charisma and their histories. I don't usually include a whole lot of details about settings, because as a fantasy writer, I like letting readers imagine what the setting looks like, so each reader has a different setting in mind. I'll give just enough detail to give a general idea, but the finer details are all up to the reader.
Detail ties into something that I really enjoy, called repetition :) But I'll talk about repetition more in-depth tomorrow. Agree, disagree, like or dislike let me know! Always like to hear from readers and learn more that way :)