Your Brain Fills in the Gaps

Sometimes writing teachers suggest that you shouldn't provide too much detail because your reader likes to provide some of it herself. Think of the times you were offended by a movie version of a book because "It's not the way I pictured it."

When we read a novel or a story, we are in essence collaborating, because we embellish, in our minds, what the author has provided.

It is also understood that our brains, ever creative, will immediately work to fill in details that are missing.  Have you ever:

--Seen someone and started to imagine a backstory for him or her?

--Been given part of a story and found yourself writing the rest?

--Been told one thing, like, "Gretchen had a sad life," and started to imagine what that entailed?

Let's test the ideas above by giving your brain something VERY LIMITED to work with. Then you will write a paragraph providing the rest of the detail--the who, what, why, when, where and how.

Here we go:

TWO PEOPLE ARE LEAVING A BUILDING.