How To Be Specific in Your Storytelling

• Start in the action
• Describe tiny, true details
• Zoom in on one small scene of a bigger story.
• Draw the reader or listener into a single moment in time.
• Help the audience experience what the characters experience as events unfold.
• Ground the audience in time and place with locations, character names, seasons, and so on.
• Paint a picture of what the characters in the story are seeing, smelling, and experiencing.
• Describe emotions and reactions, rather than stating how someone or something felt.

Being specific is a story skill. Say more with less. Show, don’t tell.