Details, Details

So, it's been about three years since the last post and honestly I don't know what to say as an excuse other than...I forgot.
But anyway, today, I want to talk about DETAILS.
You never realize how important even the littlest details can be until suddenly they aren't there.
Like appearance. I hate when the appearances of characters change from book to book, even if it is normally side characters. The number one way of annoying me, is telling me something about their appearance and then changing it later. If you're going to change it, don't mention it at all.
Ok, you can change it, I suppose. But never do it in the same story without explanation for the change.
For example, Hair color change can be simply explained away by two words: Hair dye.
Eye color is a little trickier, and I suggest you be very careful not to fall off the eye color cliff.

Why did this topic even come to mind?
I was brainstorming for one of my stories during my first semester of college when I suddenly realized that I had generalized her life far too much. I knew practically nothing about my character. I knew more about her family tree and her future than I did about her.
I didn't even know what her locker looked like, how she had managed to hide her genius for somewhere close to eight years, and the list goes on.
It's the littlest details that can do the most damage. A glance, a look, tapping fingers, rolling your eyes; these things convey so much with so little. Clothing, colors, decorations, accessories, things that we see everyday sometimes can convey so much depth to characters that we sometimes overlook. I mean, a character who wears tennis shoes to a dance is much different from a character who wears dress shoes to a dance. And these are the kinds of things that make the differences.

So, what could be said about someone who wears tennis shoes to the dance?
He could be a jock. Or, he could be a kid who didn't want to dress up too much and so wore his tennis shoes. Or he just might not have a pair of dress shoes. The possibilities are literally endless.
But then let's say that the tennis shoes are beat up, worn, but freshly scrubbed for that night.
My immediate thought is to say that he doesn't own dress shoes and he can't really afford them. Besides, his feet would just grow out of them. And it was just a school dance, it's not like he even had a date.

A whole story can develop from the smallest of details.

Then there is the Over-Detailing pitfall. This is just as dangerous as under detailing.
Readers don't need to know when exactly you went to bed unless this is key to the character. If your character goes to bed at ten every night, but suddenly they went to bed at one AM, then you have the readers interest. But only if you got the details in there enough to make this change seem relevant to your readers.

One of the things I am horrible about is skimming over a space of time such as...six months? I don't do it often, but every once in a while I just get bored and want time to go forward. So I skim over until it seems like their life has become monotonous and then I make stuff happen.
And it's a delusion. Because I just skimmed from something happening to something happening with maybe a paragraph in between. And I'm not saying you can't skim through time, you can. But if you do it too much then you're going to be in trouble. Best way to skip a couple days; start a new chapter.

So, have fun. Go into detail. Examine shoes. Tell me how it goes!