Writing Journal: Finding Detail

I’m reading along, enjoying a book, the description, the dialogue, the plot, then the writer does something that grabs me viscerally, snags my gut, or heart, or the base of my throat…Then,  he/she does it again and again, until I’m there in that scene.

That writer has me…for as long as he keeps writing, if he never forgets that one thing: Detail.

Small, perfect details that crack open a scene or emotion. Details that have me whispering to myself, yes, that’s real, that’s exactly what that feels like, looks like, is. I know that, I’ve felt that, I’ve heard, smelled, tasted that, exactly. Or, I’ve never felt that, tasted that, smelled that, but now I know what it’s like and I’ve lived this other life.

Isn’t that why we read?

However, details can be hard to come by. I know. I’ve been trying to get the little details into my current book as I rewrite because there are places that feel flat. But how do I go about finding details about the old west when my life and experience is far from that? Oh, I can imagine, but I need to know, but that isn’t enough.

How do I turn my observations into enough, the just right ones? What details can I truly research? What do I have to find out for myself?

What I’ve figured out is I wish I’d done a better job of keeping my writer’s journal. There are good reasons why I didn’t, but now, I need to pull out faded memories in search of details from those busy years when my boys were small. When I was dragging them to museums, nature workshops, scouting events and I need to pluck those memories from moments I was just trying to keep track of three boys, keep peace, keep sane.

Research helps, but only so much, so re-experience has become the best I can do. Even then, the writer’s journal is crucial, because some details are so fleeting. Sometimes observations go by too quickly, my notes too vague and general. Being specific when you are moving through an experience is difficult. I’ve found that’s ok, if you write briefly and include a list of observations and quick impressions.

I’ve had to teach myself to do this and often, the way I do it in my journal is with haiku and lists. I remind myself to pay attention, think small. Think specific. Think specific to what the POV character experiences, notices. 

So, I'm trying to use my journal. To write in it every day. I'm trying to spend more time noticing the little things in my day. I'm looking, feeling, smelling...living with attention.

Crochet/Cross-stitching a Story

I grew up surrounded by women whose hands were never idle when they watched TV or ‘relaxed.’ My mother was a wonderful knitter and sewer, my best friend’s mom crocheted and embroidered, my grandma did every kind of handwork: knitting, crocheting, embroidery, cutwork, cross-stitch. Needlework was required for the girls in our church starting at the age of twelve. I was pitiful at it, too impatient and then, too ashamed by my finished project, a pitiful mess, from the stamped cross-stitch sampler to the crocheted purse to the knitted covered hanger, to want to ever try again.

Later, when my friends and I started filling hope chests I revisited needlework. I’d learned patience, at least a bit. (I’ve since learned, patience is an ongoing skill a person never completely masters.) It was my brilliant idea that for birthdays and Christmas we’d exchange things for our hope chests, preferably homemade. And it was a great idea, at least, I’ve thought so over the years.

What a wonderful thing that all these years later I still have tea towels and dresser scarves embroidered by childhood friends (some of which I haven’t seen since) as I began married life. I still have stacks of tea towels and pillowcases, so I never truly forget these wonderful friends. And it got us to learn handwork and figure out that hand-made things are the best gifts.

About this same time, I registered for a homemaking arts class for my senior year of high school. At the time I had no idea how much this class would help me find a safe, soft place to land every day in a hellish year. That year was profound for me. I lost my father and spent much of the year lost and adrift. I worried about my mother and found myself helping her make some pretty adult decision. That hour a day of quiet and discovering the importance of being still and doing something physical but intent like handwork centered me, saved me.  

Over the years, I’ve come to depend on handwork to work through problems in my own life or in my writing. More, I’ve come to appreciate how the slow progress of one row of crochet after another, over time, makes a whole afghan. One cross-stitch at a time ends up with a sampler worthy of hanging on my walls. That knowledge helps me face the daunting beginnings of a novel with less fear. I know word upon word makes a sentence, makes a paragraph, makes a chapter. I know little steps matter, maybe, more than big steps, and I’ve learned faith in my own ability to stick with something.

I’ve crochet over ninety afghans for family and friends. I’ve crocheted them one little stitch at a time. I’ve cross-stitched countless samplers, one cross-stitch at a time. I’ve struggled with difficult patterns, unpicked mistakes, changed my mind about color choices. Each stitch has pulled, dragged, helped me through bad times, good times, times of stress, worry and plenty. Each stitch has blessed me ten times over as I’ve learned patience, determination, tenacity, starting over, redoing, perfecting. The exact skills I need for writing.