Small Details
And their feelings are powerfully evoked through their dialogue. Knowing what the characters look like would not add to the story. Their physical appearances are just not important, not part of the issues they are struggling with or the emotions they are feeling.
Small Details Make a Difference
Writers will sometimes, out of their fear of being sentimental, destroy an early draft of a story by stripping it of the details that gave it vitality. It will exist primarily because you are a unique human being. No one in the world is going to imagine, interpret, or present exactly the same story.
Take, for instance, the first Rocky movie, the Academy Award winner for best picture in Nothing very original about that. But what makes the movie work is that the characters come to life so that the audience knows them and is interested in them. The same would be true, of course, if Rocky were a short story or novel or memoir. The subject of a story is almost always people, whatever else the story might concern, and originality comes not from the subject so much as from the treatment of the subject.
You can write about something that sounds, when summarized, mundane—for instance, an old lady who lives alone in a cottage in the woods and does nothing except work with flowers in her yard and drink tea before going to bed at night. It all comes down to the small details.
- Expository Thoughts on James (Expository Thoughts on the Scriptures Book 2);
- Nasturtiums for Grandma Minnie;
- The Importance of Small Details in Fiction Writing.
Detail-oriented people know that, and adjust behavior accordingly. Along with attention to clothing goes attention to body language. Detail-oriented people notice how other people are carrying themselves or sitting. This social observation gives detail-oriented people an exceptional ability to recognize others' feelings and then respond appropriately.
WhatCulture.com
Is he slumping his shoulders? Is she holding her head up high?
We already know which general feelings go along with these nonverbal cues, so taking the time to notice helps detail-oriented people succeed with others. As a writer I can easily relate to this particular penchant for perfection; it's something I discussed in-depth in my article "Is Bad Grammar Killing Your Brand?
Small details you missed in the new Spider-Man game
Had I no point to make, there certainly would be a comma after "writer. Sometimes the devil is in the details, and other times the devil is in spending way too much time on the details. Being a detail-oriented person is really only useful if attention to detail is sufficiently complemented by an eye for the big picture. Looking at things with a broad perspective allows the detail-oriented person to get an overview that can inform and enhance decision making.
Little Big Details - The details are not the details
When detail-oriented people simultaneously look at the big picture and its details, they can recognize patterns that connect the little things. An easy example of this pattern-recognition process is when you start becoming familiar with the streets of a new neighborhood. When you first drive through, the streets leading to your destination are the most important details, and the big picture isn't much of a concern.
When you drive through the neighborhood again to a different destination, the specific streets you're driving along are once again the important details. After you drive through a few more times--taking different streets, learning different routes--you may then recognize how the streets were planned.
Maybe the area is organized into perfect blocks. Maybe it's a swirling, yet patterned collection of cul-de-sacs.