What Are You Trying to Say?

wowow hello. Do you how do. 

Since I have nothing better to do, and I was exploring around fanfics trying to look for something fluffy to read, I ran across something that actually peeved me and so I'm here to write about it. Yes. 

Be Specific

I don't see it very often, but as this goes along with details, sometimes I see people describe something and they suddenly decide to skimp out and put 'and stuff'. Dude. What the hell. When you put something like that, it leaves the ready completely open for interpretation (and in a horrible way) and simply leaves them with a complete blank canvas in their minds. No, they don't know what that 'stuff' is, it can range from anything. Literally, anything. A box or puppies to the moon, where do they stop?

It's just absolute poor habit and poor writing if you're going to describe something like:

The room was quaint and stuff. 

or

"Let's go eat some yummy stuff'"

Come on, man. I don't know what that "stuff" is. First of all, you're really skimping out. If you're going to even bother writing, then write properly and putting 'stuff' is not sufficent. Seriously, I don't think that would even pass for grade 7 language arts class. Mind you, the only point in time where writting 'stuff'' is alright is if it's in dialogue like:

"Yoona, what are you doing?" Taeyeon coughs, hand covering before fanning the dust away from her face.

"Just cleaning up some stuff," The other replies, smiling softly before pulling another box off the shelf.

Honestly, avoid using it in descriptions because it is one of the most vague words you can use, and stuff is not the only word out there. If you're going to bother writing a description, ask yourself questions and don't be lazy to just use the word "stuff". What makes the room quaint? It's most definately not 'stuff', let me tell you that now. 

There's a lot of vague words out there, and try to avoid using some of them because it not only makes your writing seem awkward but unprofessional and just makes you look horribly lazy. Like, the word 'stuff' and 'thing'. 

Remember that words are subjective. For example, your idea of perfect may differ from your best friend, your teacher, your parents, your sibling or myself. Your idea of what is beautiful may be different from mine. So if you were to describe something as small, that idea may differ from mine. How small are we talking about? The size of my pinky nail, the size of my palm, the size of a pea or what? 

That being said, though. No, you do not have to be specific down to the bones. It's okay to be a little vague. I'm pretty sure we all know that a 'small rock' isn't going to be the size of your head. That would be considered as a pretty big rock. Or a 'few' pages isn't going to be a hundred unless specifically said 'a few hundred pages'.

Details are tricky, for the most part it's better to be specific but if you're too specific, you're going to honestly stop the flow of your story and it'll be too boring to read.

He picked up the A6 notebook off the earth's surface that was mudded by rain and dried by the sun's light. The notebook was silver coiled, and had a yellow cover with a vertical stripped design with an occasional white line running down, and was just about the size of his palm. He brushed off the mud, dust, dirt and bits of dried up grass with the back of his hand from the plastic cover. There were only five pages left in the notebook, all the others seems to be ripped out and parts of those pages have been caught on the silver coils  but he can't even think of what one would even write in such a small notebook, they'd probably be better off with post-it notes. 

If you're not specific enough, you're going to let the reader's imagination run wild, and would render your story just as boring.

He picked something up off the floor and brushed the dust away. It was a small notebook and wondered what could be written in it. 

So you're going to have to find a medium between those. 

He picked up the small notice off the ground and brushed away the debris that clouded the yellow cover. It was just about the size of his palm, and awefully light. From the bits and peices of papers caught in the coils, he realizes that there's only a few pages left in the book. He could hardly imagine what would be writting in the small notebook to begin with. 

yeah. Remember, be specific but not too specific. And seriously, try to avoid using 'stuff' that's like one of the worst words to use when trying to describe something.