The Story Is In The Details
August 2020 Editorial
www.ink2quill.com

Whatever happened to the expression `The devil is in the details´? There is truth to that expression. Sometimes, at least. The way we communicate, in all forms, has changed. We´ve become spoiled with the spontaneous. Results or the meat of a message, talk or story can be had immediately. So, what´s wrong with that? What´s wrong with having results that are just a click away? What´s wrong with things, like communication, becoming more streamlined?

I love the way my favorite and most important websites are a click away, thanks to my favorites icon. I love the way that if I ever decide to use my VPN it´s just a click away. In case I need to use foreign streaming websites, for example. I love the way web browsers, software and Apps have toolbars, dashboard trees and widgets. So, what is wrong with that?

The answer to those questions are that absolutely, positively nothing is wrong with that. Those are just some of the great advantages that our technologies offer us. This reminds me of the book by Caleb Carr where he discusses some of the advantages of technology, like the fact that our technology helps the average person easily accomplish what it would have taken many more slaves to do in ancient days. (Yes, technology helped to keep the horrible crime of slavery from rearing its ugly head in the modern world). Thanks to technology the average person has the ability to do the work that would have taken 10 times more slaves. Remember that slaves were owned by wealthy land owners too. Not to mention health care technology, ease of travel and a nearly global financial system. All of which the average person, more or less, has access to.

There is one pitfall to having everything streamlined and formulaic. That way of doing things, that mentality, can leak out to other aspects of life where it is less useful. Think of the arts, among other areas. Think of the way Hollywood looks for very formulaic stories. Ones that are predictable and not very thought provoking as a consequence. Cookie cutter stories are more noticeable from foreign film industries like Nigerwood, Bollywood and the Chinese film industry because of obvious cultural bias but Hollywood does the same thing.

But instead of stating the obvious let me bring another point to your attention. What about literature? Writing styles have definitely changed with the times. Previous literary laws like not starting a sentence with the words `and´ or `but´is no longer considered taboo. Small, choppy sentences are far more common as well. All of these changes have not diminished the literature of today but I do have one gripe. There is one tendency that I hope will end soon.

I have noticed this tendency in the last four books I´ve read. Now granted these were scifi books published fairly recently and all were good books with great ideas. But… but… but. They skimp on descriptions. Yes that´s the flaw I´m talking about. When writers edit out descriptions of landscape, characters, events to speed things along and we, the reader, are left to fill in the blanks, so to speak. I won´t mention any authors because I loved their books in spite of such flaws. One such author built this unique and unbelievable world but at the end of the book I wanted to take a bicycle pump to the pages and double its size with descriptions of that world. There is such a thing as a book lacking in descriptions and I´m not talking about fluff or clutter.

So, authors of the today. Stop skimping on descriptions and give the people what they want.

John

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