Fictional writing is a work of art and it is created much like a piece of art, one brush stroke at a time. You may already know what your bigger picture will look like but if the small details are left out, the big ones won't work. These small details are the glue that holds your story together, they are the deciding factor in whether your story works or not and, as such, they are the most important part of your work.

Consider, when you are writing, the small details about your characters. Details like what paintings are on a wall in their home, what books are on their coffee table. What color are their walls or curtains? What car does he or she drive? What clothes? What food or drink? You don’t need to go into vast amounts of detail because too much will spoil it and will only bore a reader. Keep it in context; you might not need to tell your reader everything about your main character’s looks or tell them what kind of house he or she lives in unless it is relevant to the story. An example is Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemmingway. He gives no description of his characters, of how they look because it isn’t important to his story. Their feelings are.

Take some risks. Forget about the flat details that authenticate your story; these might do more harm than good. Instead, add details that are emotionally charged. If, as you are writing, a particular detail moves you, add it in – there’s a good chance that your readers will feel the same.

The premise of a “Big Picture” story is nothing original. Take the original Rocky film. This won an Academy Award in 1976 for Best Picture. To most people, the premise is unoriginal – a boxer on the down and out and given a new chance to win a title. It doesn’t strike enthusiasm or excitement into a person but what made it work was the small details. The characters were brought to life, allowing viewers to get to know them, to become interested in them, by the small details – Rocky’s turtles, a phrase he uses all the time, a hole in his t-shirt, all small details that add together to make the story. The same premise applies to fictional writing.

When you write a story, regardless of what it is about, the main subject is people, most of the time anyway. Your originality is not going to come from that subject; it will come from how you treat the subject. There isn’t any need to include bizarre details unless they add to the story. You just need to include the details that tell us who the subject is, what makes them tick. Take the example of an elderly man who lives alone; his cabin is in the forest and his life revolves around working in his garden, growing flowers, and having a cup of cocoa before going to bed.

It sounds mundane but a good writer will bring that scene to life with the small details; the smell of the flowers, the sound of the wind whispering through the trees, the feel of the earth, all details that bring the story alive in the mind of a reader.