Telling details

‘Telling details’ is a stock piece of advice I give at creative writing classes, along with ‘show, don’t tell.’ But it is amazing when students move from writing about generalities and amorphisms to particular details – green bicycles and yellow shirts, late season apples and the like. Suddenly the writing is vivid and specific, so much more their own story. I think other reasons I was so insistent that the fridge repair man could tell stuff about me by the contents of my fridge was firstly because it was embarrassingly grubby, and secondly because I read too much Agatha Christie as a teenager.

Oh, and here’s that Jarvis Cocker song I was talking about. He doesn’t say ‘deeply superficial’ – instead he says ‘I am profoundly shallow.’ I can’t remember song lyrics for the life of me. All my lyric remembering was used up in my youthful Smiths devotion. In another song on the same album he says ‘don’t write a novel, a shopping list is better.’ I wonder if his advice should be taken.