Give the picture.

Sometimes I come across a piece of advice that I couldn't say any better. This is one of those times. Author and teacher Oakley Hall illustrates what he calls "Specification" in his book, "How Fiction Works." As a good writer should, here he shows all you need to know. An excerpt follows (I admit to editing a couple of the examples just a touch.).

1. Some people came into the room.
2. Three women and a tiny jockey in orange silks crowded through the door.

1. He was a big man with a beard.
2. He filled the doorway, his beard glistening with curls.

1. It was cold in the kitchen.
2. She hunched her shoulders and rubbed her hands together against the chill in the kitchen.

1. The crowd passed in the street.
2. The street brimmed with the jostling of men in cloth caps and women in babuskas.

1. The baby lay in his crib.
2. In his blue crib, the pink child gurgled and made knitting motions with plump fists.

1. The man walked across the floor.
2. The burly security guard hurried across the black and white tiles.

Me again. You get the picture. I get lazy, too, and brush off a chance to make lively pictures with specifics and details. I plan to keep these examples in mind both as I continue to write my latest novel and when I go back to rewrite.