I’m not sure I’ve ever been great at paying attention to the world around me. It has to be pretty spectacular for me to notice it.
When I was a college freshman, I headed off to an afternoon class, “Media and Society,” one fall day. After walking across campus and into the library, I saw a note on the door saying that class had been canceled. Hmm.
As I walked back toward my dorm, a security man drove up to me in a golf cart. He was an older, big man, and I remember how red his face was. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
I gaped at him. “Well, I’m trying to get to class. But it’s canceled.”
“Well it sure as hell is! Hurricane Hugo is coming through, young lady! Why do you think the campus is deserted? Do you hear that siren? And look at that sky. Do you think that’s normal?”
Oh. No, I didn’t think it was normal, now that he mentioned it. And the campus was sort of oddly deserted….like that movie The Day After. The siren? I don’t know what I thought that was all about. The outraged security guy dragged me into his golf cart and deposited me at my dorm with stern warnings. Everyone in my dorm had gathered into the commons area to watch the TV….a fact I’d been blissfully unaware of when I’d left my dorm room and trotted off to the canceled class.
Sometimes I don’t pay attention to minor details.
I skip over details when reading, too. I want to get to the main thrust of the story. Ordinarily, tedious setting descriptions, love scenes, and boring bits get a pass over from me.
What I do pay attention to as a reader:
First off: who is the protagonist? I want to know right off the bat who I need to pay most attention to.
Subtle clues to the season, time of day, and general location. Are people wearing sweaters? Coats? Sleeveless tops? Are leaves turning? Are crocuses blooming? Are the characters’ shadows stretching out on the pavement in front of them? I think I pay more attention to setting clues than if the writer comes right out and lays out the information for me.
What year is it? Am I reading something set in the present day? A retro piece? I read a book recently that dealt with World War II. But for the longest time, I couldn’t ascertain if the war was still ongoing, or set in its aftermath. I ignored everything else in the book until I tracked down that bit of information.
I want more details about the setting if I’m reading a tense scene between protagonist and antagonist. Can the protagonist escape? Is there anyone within earshot?
Who are important secondary characters? Which names do I need to learn and which are just bit players I don’t have to remember later?
What is the relationship between different characters? Friends? Lovers? Family? I may even need an additional reminder of their connection later on.
If you sometimes skim as a reader, are there parts that you’re actively looking for? Are there parts you always want to pay attention to or that you flip back in a book to find?
Elizabeth – I have my oblivious moments, too! I try not to skim when I read, because I like to savor my reading, but when I do skim, the first thing I pay attention to is the set of main characters. Who are they? When are they? Where are they? If it’s a murder mystery, who’s the victim going to be. Then I look for things like foreshadowing, so I get a sense of where the story’s going. Once I’m anchored, I look for the other details.
I tend to be oblivious to setting, both when reading and writing. I’m concerned with who is in the scene and what they are doing, where they are is usually a very minor concern for me. Same in life as well. If I were to run through a typical day with someone and they asked me to describe a room I spent half of that day in, I probably couldn’t even tell them the colour of the walls, let alone whether there was carpet or curtains or a fan or anything useful at all. Knowing this, I try really hard ot develop setting in the stories I write and I get my friends to read the story and tell me what they think the various settings look like. If they can’t or the description they give me is totally wrong I know I need to do more work.
Thaks for an excellent post and making us all think a little more.
I laughed so hard my sides hurt–you missed a hurricane?
I never skim read, but I do read very fast. The long scene descriptions don’t stick in my head, and I instantly forget it. Dialogue usually catches my attention and turn abouts. Like, when I’m thinking things are going in one direction then it suddenly goes someplace unexpected. That’s when I sit up and take notice–and read a little faster to see what happens next.
As a reading I want to know the main characters first, get a feel for where the setting is and what’s going on. I skim from time to time in some of my reading and then I have to go back and pick up a detail I missed.
Another problem I have is when I go to write something down. I know what I want to write so when I go back to re-read it, I sometimes miss that I’ve written it right because I’m reading what’s in my mind, not what’s on the page. Make sense or have I done it again? For this reason I have to take a break from what I wrote and go back to re-read with a clear mind a little later.
“Sometimes I don’t pay attention to minor details.”
Elizabeth, not noticing the front edge of a hurricane sweeping in is not not paying attention to minor details, it’s being immersed in your own little world, oblivious to everything else going on! Something, I am entirely prone to. I don’t miss small things, I miss whole events! The world just gets tuned out.
I walk in La La land all the time. I missed a tornado siren one time,tornadoes overhead which you reminded me of, which I will blog about soon. I am with Rob, I too miss entire events.
I think it is important to give details of the characters, but not necessarily tell the reader, instead sometimes show.
In a mystery I like to read- and if writing give- clues that blend into the scenery, if you will. When reading I don’t want clues to hit me in the face. I want to hunt for the clues…to be so clever that in the end…I’m like oh yeh. I want them to “pay attention”.
I used to describe detail too much. Now I pass right over it in favor of dialogue and character.
As a reader I’d say I’m absolutely focused on the editing side? If the plot arc and character arc seem right to me, and the writing is smooth, I can focus. But if one knob is unscrewed, I can’t see the story for the necessary edits.
Hazards of being a writer. You should interview virgin readers vs. ‘writing’ readers and see how varied the answers are. We writers have a hard time focusing on the meat of the tale!
:D
I can’t believe you missed a hurricane :)
I get like that when I’m reading or writing. I remember having the daylights scared out of me when I was little and my mom finally had to touch me to get my attention.
I have to be careful not to write too close to supper time. If I do, we end up with overcooked something or take out :)
All I can say is you were obviously a far more responsible freshman than I was! What a funny story, Elizabeth!
Elspeth
Good points here. I think there are all kinds of readers so you have to accommodate all of them, from the detailed oriented to the “cut to the chase” readers like yourself. I enjoy noticing details and am particularly thrilled when some little detail I noticed that seems of little significance at the time turns out to be a major element in the plot. Love it when an author does that.
Marvin D Wilson
ps – love the college storm story – man you are single-minded FOCUSED sometimes, eh? lol
Chuckle – how could you miss a hurricane coming?
Extensive descriptions bore me, so I usually skip those. I’m not as concerned with the surroundings as the characters themselves.
Margot–I want to know the victim right away, too. Who is the sleuth, who is the victim? I can wait on everything else for a little while (and then I need my suspects.)
Cassandra–So you just get a vague impression of rooms you’re in. Sort of like a Monet painting. Yes, I think I’m that way, too.
Lorel–And I didn’t realize the Gulf War was going on until a couple of days into it. Ahh…college!
Dialogue is much more fun to read, isn’t it? Unless the setting is really crucial to the book, I probably won’t remember it. Louise Penny’s books and MC Beaton’s books are exceptions. I just love those Canadian and Scottish settings.
Rob–It’s a very foggy way to live, isn’t it? My dad is the same way. We have whole conversations where I’m pretty sure neither he nor I are going to remember later that we even talked. :) I need to learn to focus, but I’m not sure if I can, at this point.
Corra–Good point! I read with a highlighter and a pen and tend to deconstruct books. Except for library books, of course! :) But regular readers may focus on different aspects of the story than writers do. That would be very interesting to find out.
Mason–Oh, gosh, that’s easy to do. Reading the text out loud helps sometimes.
Marvin–That technique is cool isn’t it? The insignificant detail that ends up being important later on.
Yes, I think I was like, “Must-Get-To-Class. Must-Get-To-Class.” I was just pleased I had my notebook and textbook and a pencil with me, probably…weather? What’s that? :)
Diane–I’m not really sure how I could miss it. :) It was quite a storm when it actually rolled in. And I’m with you—elaborate setting detail gets a pass over.
Journaling Woman–Sometimes it’s almost easier to remember setting details and character details when they’re not just laid out for us, isn’t it? I like to feel clever with clues, too.
Elizabeth – I sympathize with you missing the hurricane. I recall being immersed in some writing one evening. (I was in my office, at the left front corner of the hosue.) After a while, my conscious mind realized I’d been hearing LOTS of people talking outside the side window to my office. I decided to take a peek out the window and saw about 20 people gathered in the road at the side of the house, pointing across the street. When I looked out the front window, I noticed two fire trucks, an ambulance, and 20-foot tall flames shooting out of the third floor of the house across the street.
As far as my opinion on skimming goes: it all depends upon the writer. If the scene doesn’t grab my interest, I skim. Doesn’t matter what it’s about. I seldom skim through dialogue, however, since I’m primarily auditory.
I’m such a news junkie that I nearly always know the overall picture of what’s going on. But I’m so bad about the details. “Yeah, I know that,” and move on. Yet when I read, I love details as long as they’re not presented as an info dump or laundry list of attributes. I most often flip back for details about a character.
You know,when I read, I don’t think I had ever considered “which names do I need to learn and which are bit characters, but this is the second time in two weeks that I’ve heard this phrase. I had my daughter read a story before I posted it on my blog. She wanted to know why I mentioned certain characters as they were only going to be used in one paragraph, then she said the same thing as you, “when she reads, she asks which names does she need to learn and which ones won’t show up again.” I don’t remember ever thinking that. I like reading stories that move forward, I find it difficult to read stories that have a lot of flashbacks, it detracts from the flow for me. I can remember from front to end the sequences, but too flashbacks mess with my memory. I’m one of those left brain step people. Good post.
Jemi–Too funny! I can get like that when reading, too. It has to be really good, though!
Elspeth–I was a nerd. :) I probably would have tried to get to my class even if I’d *known* there was a hurricane coming in.
Linda–Oh my word. But I find that completely believable–why *wouldn’t* you realize there was a 5 alarm fire across the street? You were busy writing!
I didn’t even think about the connection between enjoyment of dialogue and auditory learning. Really interesting!
Thanks for a great blog, Elizabeth. I feel a whole lot better now. I thought I was the only writer who was not acutely aware of his/her surroundings. I don’t notice home decor changes or house paint colours switches and I’ve always thought I was artistically insensitive. Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone. As a reader I skim landscape but read carefully interior descriptions (looking for clues)and character physical descriptions. As a reader, I’m compulsive about attributing lines of dialogue to characters; it drives me nuts if it’s not clear who said a line and I’ll work at it until I can figure it out.
As a writer, I’m not sure. I guess I haven’t noticed. ;-)
If a book really has my interest, I tend to read faster, skimming a bit. The pace pulls me along. That’s good — and bad. Often I’ll read something and stop, saying HUH? Then I have to go back and find what I missed.
Helen
Straight From Hel
Helen–I’ve done that, too. Which makes me think the author didn’t make enough of a big deal of the point to begin with. Or…that I shouldn’t have been skimming. :)
Carol–I’m bad with details, too, unless I’m reading a mystery and think something might be a clue or red herring.
Judy–I think sometimes readers just can’t memorize a lot of names (I’m one of those readers.) But, oddly, my editors have had me name *places*. They want me to name the art gallery instead of calling it ‘the art gallery,’ they want me to name the diner instead of calling it ‘the diner.’ I think that’s because the reader likes to feel connected to a place but they know they don’t have to memorize the name of the place for future reference.
Bobbi–You’re definitely not alone. :) I think maybe, as writers, our heads are in the clouds sometimes. Lots of fog there!
Dialogue attribution…yes that’s another one I like to track down.