Small & vital details

A story I was writing left me cold. I couldn't figure out why. The plot was decent, the characters seemed plausible, the setting intriguing. But the whole thing was flat and lifeless. I tried the usual things — asking myself questions about the characters so I could know them better. Getting rid of redundant phrases and adjectives. Powering up the verbs. The story was still not right. So I started adding details. Instead of the character complaining that her husband 'wanted the same foods every day', the wife despaired that her husband wanted 'steak or fried chicken day after day'. Instead of the woman buying the cat 'expensive toys', I wrote she bought the cat 'mouse toys and a plush bed he ignored, preferring to sleep in the armchair'. Instead of a boy fearing 'bugs and spiderwebs' in a cellar, he feared 'spiderwebs and bugs as long as his boy fingers'. And suddenly the story was real. I believed it. I could see the plush cat bed that Elvis the cat ignored, I could picture the husband chewing through his steak (or fried chicken) night after night, and I could see those long, black bugs, scuttling away. I realised how details can make a story true. As readers, we buy into a story, (or a poem, a screenplay, a play) if these 'facts' give it the ring of truth. They are small and vital details.