Too Much Information

Journalists often learn that detail is the heart fo writing. Read some of the early classic pieces of non-fiction narrative and you'll see one piece of information after another intended to put the reader into the scene. Instead, the details often put the reader to sleep.

I can remember looking at a piece regarded highly by some big names in the non-fiction narrative genre. The reporter was walking through a field that had the smell of apples from a distant orchard. So the writer did some research, found the varietal being grown, and mentioned it by name. But what did that add to the story? If the average person were walking through that field, would he or she know whether the smell came from a gravenstein, winesap, royal gala, or some combination? Not at all. This is the use of detail that falls into the smart ass category: journalists add information simply because they can and like to show that they know it. But the apples in this case weren't central to the story - it was just the scent of apples that provided a detail of what it would be like to walk through the same fields.

This is when detail becomes distraction. Ever hear the phrase about killing your darlings? It means that no adored sentence or passage can take precedence over the piece as a whole, and that you have to be ready to eradicate that which will get in the way of the story. That's what needless detail does. Just as you bring the reader further in, it's that annoying noise that breaks the mood. Yet detail has become a matter of one-upsmanship, particularly in newspapers, from what I can tell.

Stories are the only victim. So are queries. Another writer asked me to look at a pitch that ran 700 words. I made some suggests that kept the essence of the pitch and cut the length in half - meaning that it's more likely the writer will get the attention of an editor. The details I pruned weren't irrelevant - but including them only did damage to the query because of what it had to accomplish and the constraints on space.

When applying the detail, think of Chinese brush painting, or a really good cartoon. There are only enough lines and details to render the whole image. Every piece of writing can go on only so long. I'm not suggesting to forget details. When writing an article, for example, I typically have a 10 to 1 or higher ratio of research notes to final article length. Properly handling detail means gathering all you can and then being judicious in the inclusion. Those details aren't wasted - they serve two purposes. One is being available in case the story needs them. The other is saving time by being available if the editor wants them.