 For Authors: March 31, 2021 Issue [#10689] |
This week: Details Matter Edited by: fyn  
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The details are not the details. They make the design. ~~Charles Eames
Details create the big picture.~~Sanford I. Weill
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived
and how he died that distinguish one man from another. ~~Ernest Hemingway
Details matter. They create depth, and depth creates authenticity. ~~Neil Blumenthal
A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water.
Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts.
And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching. ~~Swami Sivananda
A great deal of creativity is about pattern recognition, and what you need to discern patterns is tons of data.
Your mind collects that data by taking note of random details and anomalies easily seen every day: quirks
and changes that, eventually, add up to insights. ~~Margaret Heffernan
It's the little details I love. How to fletch your arrows with owl feathers, because owls fly silently, so maybe your arrows will, too. How to carry fire in a piece of smouldering fungus wrapped in birchbark. These are the things which help a world come alive. ~~Michelle Paver
To be a good researcher is to be a good detective, and I enjoy ferreting out tidbits of information. For a diary book like 'A Coal Miner's Bride,' newspapers come in handy for small everyday details such as weather reports. ~~Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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There are approximately 12,000- something pieces of firewood against my back fence. Maple. cherry, oak.A pile of pine. Split, not stacked. (burb pit wood, not woodstove wood. It is what I see through my office window. Over the winter, I have watched six or seven face cords vanish into smoke, leaving behind only a twenty-dollar gas bill each month. The older wood is dark grey, almost black. Fresher wood looks like wood. Raw, not aged. The older wood is lighter, more moisture is gone. Cherry burns the cleanest of the bunch.
Warmer temperatures these days have awakened the chipmunks that snoozed all winter. The one woodpile (next winter's wood) apparently was the Hibernate Here Hotel. Now they run and jump about, in and out of holes between logs. A chipmunk condo. Closer in, the robins are back as are the goldfinches, wrens, and other summer birds. The cardinal's song has changed as he sings for a mate. The squirrels never did master the art of scaling a shepherd's crook clothed in a slinky. Almost time for the hummingbird feeders to go out.
The grass has greened up, the straw-colored winter grass been raked away. Closer yet, the wind chimes are dancing today; very windy out. They aren't quite as clear as I'd like. Spring. TIme to wash the windows.
Little things. Useful for more than just my backyard at some point. Hundred of wheelbarrow loads carted up to the house over the winter. Hubby snow-blew pathways to the woodpile. The dog loves to have us chase her, she knows exactly where we will or will not fit between the stacks.
Outside moments ago. Two rabbits, browns and greysblend in almost seamlessly with wood, dead pine needles andwoodchips. Then an ear twitches, a nose wrinkles. Then, they hopped away under the curious eye of a robin on the grass.
Just humdrum details of a yard. But the thing is, I noticed them. I noticed raindrops clinging to the tree out front as I headed to the kitchen for coffee. Ran for the phone, took the picture. Massive number of pictures on my phone are there just so I can pull the memory, the details back into focus for when I'm writing. A helpful tip to keep details fresh!
Details take mere flat words and give a scene depth and contour. Details provide texture, temperature, sounds and smells. Details bring the piece to life. To build a library of details requires one to be observant. To be hyper-observant to the point you are noticing and filing tidbits away without even realizing it.
A detail exercise: Try to write a piece several paragraphs long describing the taste of water, a sheet of paper, or the taste of poi.
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JACE - House Targaryen  says: Well said, Miss Fyn. I suspect your words resonate deeply with any member who's been here more than ten years (as I have). I especially loved your take on re-visiting older pieces. I always thought if I had time I'd "update" them. Now I think I like using them to see just how far I've come as a writer. At least I'd like to think I've improved. 
Vicki Lynne  writes: This was a great read for me tonight, as I embark on yet another journey in my life of getting yet another "paper that tells others" that I know what I'm doing, I know my stuff yall, and if you just know me, you'd see that I do, and me getting the paper to show you that I went to school to get, but in the real world, the world of how I learned the hard way, there is no certificate, not even on a tombstone that can tell what I did in life. (Now, I know that is a large running sentence but I'm just saying like you would hear me in real life.) I see so many grave yards as I've always called them, that have a flat marker, that you can't see from the road, and some of them have flowers. BUT a big granite stone is the closest thing to a journal to remember that deceased person was. THUS, writing a journal to pass down to your family is my most important "piece of paper" to document what I've done, how I learned the hard way, and that I really existed. I always encourage new mothers to do the same, and then one day, they might do like I did when my daughter graduated high school. I presented her a book of her life up to that day. How I cried when she was born, when she went to kindergarten, graduated from kindergarten, went to real school, cut her own hair, the ages she did those things, and how they meant so much to me. Oh, how I wish that I had journals of my parents, and other family members now.
hbk16 adds: This a great writing experience indeed. Writing art is endless in fact. Great issue!
Rhymer Reisen  comments: I'm so glad you kept pushing yourself! It's too easy to forget every step along the way is a learning opportunity, and no matter how we do to begin with, it's what we do from there that makes the difference. I like the concept of not "correcting" those earlier issues...it's like a time capsule! Great job!!
Patrick points out:When writers are boring,it is because they worry about what others think,And dont trust being truthfull,Still,...its tricky, People who say exactly what they think and say, "boop, there it is" are unfortunately somewhat foolish to expect a following, it does occasionally happen when people are world weary, its a break from the worlds need to conform to its standard of dress uniforms.In the end it must be done not for title popularity or To sing, the Who's iconic "im free" song.Pax in Christos/Rest in truth |
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