Tyler Has Words is the blog of Tyler Patrick Wood, a writer/musician from Texas. You'll get free book excerpts twice a week. On the other days, you'll get words. If you would like an original take on everything by an expert on nothing, this might be a cool place to hang out.

About Those People

About Those People

Post 590:

Surely in your life you’ve met people that tell a good story. Just as sure, you’ve had to sit politely whilst a terrible story is conveyed to you like it’s oh so special. Self-awareness is not strong with everyone, and it’s a burden we must bear.

In my experience, an overabundance of detail is the coffin nail of a narrative. If something interesting happened, I need to know the people involved, but I don’t need to know that their jacket pocket was ripped and flailing like a leaf on a windy day or whatever.

Eh.

Writers want to write. They want to show off. I do. But when you’re telling a story in your living room or a bar or stage, you have to look at your audience. This is why it’s good to watch and listen to people explaining daily occurrences in real-life settings. Have a look and it’ll be glaringly obvious. Turns out that showing off and hitting the superfluous booster isn’t all that important when people’s eyes start rolling in the back of their heads.

There’s a lesson there. Imagine sitting around with your peeps and you're spinning a yarn. You say, “Danny showed up and he was all sweaty.” Someone might interrupt and ask who Danny is. Then you say, “He’s the tall guy with the slit in his eyebrow. Works at Burger King.”

“Oh yeah,” responds the questioner.

And then you’re off and running again. No time wasted, and everyone knows who Danny is. They’ve got a picture of Danny, but it doesn’t include leaves and windy days.

Mad details can be awesome, but they should be integral to the character. If you talk about some dude’s hat or the way he wears it, give us a reason to care in the story. Maybe his brother stole all his hats. Maybe there was a rabid hat famine in his home country and ever since then he’s really had it bad for hats. I mean, it’s understandable. That was one of the nastiest hat famines on record. The point is—interest. Got to keep it.

There’s a lot of old time writers that drop fat stacks of details in their descriptions. I’m not sure this is a good example for our times. Readers had two or three things to do in their whole life back then. I’m thinking that Captain 12th Century wasn’t being bombarded by text messages and Netflix and Twitter. He could deal with your killer leafy pocket illustration, take in happy stride. What else was he gonna do? Check on the goats I guess. 12th Century guy had goats.

Not so much anymore. Nowadays, people need drugs to read without distraction. Most people. I generalize, but I’m pretty much right. I love to read. Need to read. It’s my passion. And it’s still hard. I mean, what’s streaming bro? Really? I love random show on Hulu that nobody loves. Distractions are the best! Where’s my cell phone? I need it to shop for a new cell phone.

That’s my two cents. At least be careful. I wish there could be leaves and windy day stories, but I suspect those days are mostly over. Until the giant EMP goes off. According to conspiracy theorists, that’s bound to happen in the next three hundred years. Somebody heard it from somebody and told me. I can’t remember. Too many details. I got bored. See!?

Cheers and see you after.

About Henry Fellows (Added Content)

About Henry Fellows (Added Content)

About Bedtime

About Bedtime

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