5 Psychological Creative Writing Tips To Help Improve Your Story

2. Only use functional details

Creative writing is a balancing act between describing the details thoroughly and overwhelming your reader with a stream of information. You don’t have to describe everything. If you think you’ve written too much and you want to skip something, think about which details are most important to the plot of your story. For example: don’t just say the cottage is old by mentioning 10 different ways it looks old. Here you could try to be more concise by focusing on a specific detail that is characteristic for something being old. Maybe even focus on that specific detail that will play a role in later plot developments. For example, you could focus on the rusty teapot in the window sill. Is your location a busy city? Does the city stink? You could focus on the dirty and overflowing gutter, or the trash can  that is so full that there’s a heap of trash next to it as well.