Adding Detail In Your Writing Can You Have Too Much

One of the things we were taught very early on in writing is to create stories rich in detail. Detail, they told us, helps the reader envision the scene and feel as though they are a part of the story.
Unfortunately, many writers – especially the very young – take this instruction to the extreme. Seemingly, our teachers forgot to tell us when to stop. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as ‘detail overload,’ and it is a sign of writing immaturity.
Writing is the art of balance: dialogue vs. action; interplay between antagonist and protagonist; intellect vs. emotion. Adding detail is a necessary element to good storytelling. But if you get too much, the details begin to interfere with the story itself. Take the following passage:
The image in the silver-trimmed mirror, reflecting back at me, left me devastated. Black silk tugged around my body, tightly leaving me restricted. Auburn-glazed hair thrown into a bun pulled my heavy, tear-stained cheeks back against my bones, leaving an almost acceptable expression. Glimmering white opals lay gracefully across my collarbone. Sparkling tears poured out of my sullen blue eyes, ravaging the make-up I’ve applied over and over again, that tried to disguise the pain.
Note: I’ve changed a bit of the passage to disguise the work of a fellow writer, and I’ve ignored the grammar and punctuation aspect to this selection.
Can you see how detail can mask what it is the author is trying (unsuccessfully) to impart? The passage is so laden with detail that we become unsure of the message, and we don’t know what is really important. The story, in fact, is about a funeral. What do a silver-trimmed mirror, glimmering opals or auburn-glazed hair have to do with anything important here? The grief of the character is lost in the attention to unimportant minutia on top of the fact that her grief is over-played and comes off as dramatic and not quite believable.
We should never hide our stories behind unnecessary details.
Details actually have a function in writing. Obviously, they do draw our readers into our stories, making them a part of the thoughts, actions and emotions of our characters. However, they should be used in very particular ways:
to point out or enhance an important object within the scene
to emphasize a character’s emotional, intellectual or physical condition
to set the feeling of a scene or action
While this is a short list of functions, the main idea here is that details should serve a purpose as opposed to being randomly strewn about a story – we are writing, not seasoning a stew. In my next few articles, we will take an in-depth look at how we can use details in the above manner to enhance our writing as opposed to losing our message to our readers.