So, I just finished watching the BBC tv show Sherlock for the 3rd time all the way through, and it made me think about all the little details that were focused on and highlighted to make the crime-solving work. I find Sherlock Holmes, in all his iterations, to be a fascinating character, but the version of him in Sherlock is particularly interesting to look at. He is not a machine, though he tries to be, and throughout the show, he grows and changes without losing his ability to concentrate on the things others might deem "insignificant" or "small." The reason I decided to write about this is because of the way he uses these details to determine not only the cause of death and the murderer, but the personality and the psyche of many of the clients and victims showcased.
This got me to think about what "little details" say about a person and how you can observe them. I remember being assigned to people watch for an acting class once. It felt a little bit like being Sherlock Holmes, but a bit more awkward since many of us had to try and be discreet while we observed and eavesdropped on people and their lives.
What I'm trying to say is observing these details is a huge part of what I do when I write in order to make the readers' visualization of the text more vivid and alive. While in a show like Sherlock, these details can be seen as clinical, cold data used for solving a crime, in something like a short story, poem, or even a song, these same details could be used in a way to convey an emotion or paint a picture of the scene in the readers'/listeners' heads. I'm planning on writing some sort of short story using these details, and I think it would be an interesting challenge to look at a scene from the perspective of someone with heightened observation skills. I know that it has been a long time since I wrote for this site, but in thinking about this topic, I've found that taking my idea from my head to the page has been a struggle. I hope to bring you this piece soon, even if it's just an excerpt. I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and happy holidays all around! Even though we can't spend this time physically with our families, I hope you have all found ways to keep the spirit of the season alive for yourself and others. Thank you for sticking with me, and I'll come back next week with my last post of 2020! Good night!