How Specific Is Your Story?

We don’t think in the abstract. If we can’t visualize it, we can’t feel it. Readers love to experience vicariously, and that is achieved with specifics. Every particular MUST pertain to the story. It not only has to tell us something we don’t know, but something we need to know right now.
A universal theme or emotion is only accessible through a very specific story that focuses on how it specifically affects one person.
Some specifics that you can and should include are:

• Motivation. The specific reason a character does something. We care about WHY they do it.
• Metaphor. The specific thing the metaphor is meant to illuminate.
• Memories. A memory that a specific event provokes in the protagonist.
• Reaction. the specific reaction a character has to a significant event.
• Thought Process. The specific possibilities that run through a character’s mind as they try to figure something out.
• Change of mind. The specific reason a character changes their mind.

Specifics must be relevant to the story, including sensory details: text, sight, smell, sound, taste.
The reader already knows what THE world looks like. What they are dying for is a glimpse of YOUR world. How do they get that glimpse?

1. Have you translated generics into specifics? You want to make sure that everything on the page is so specific, that as far as the reader is concerned, it’s virtual reality. I'm not talking about the exact color of the stained glass in the random window that your character is walking by, but about the mustache twitch of the lying merchant they are haggling with, and the smell of wine on his breath.
2. Will the reader know what your protagonist’s specific reactions are? They aren’t simply interested in knowing what happens, but how what happens is affecting your protagonist. Does seeing that mustache twitch make your character feel excited, nervous, or suspicious?
3. Do all the sensory details have an actual story reason to be there? Details must be strategically placed to give the reader insight into your characters, story, and perhaps even theme. The reader assumes that everything you tell them is on a strictly need to know basis, and not overloading them with things that don’t matter. The mustache twitching merchant with wine on his breath needs to have a good reason to be there, to be driving the story forward and pushing the character closer to their main goal, or the merchant needs go away completely so that he's not just irritating fluff that the reader has to slog through.

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What is your next step?

Is this overwhelming? Does the idea of being specific, but not TOO specific make your head explode? Do you want to be the author of the next best seller, but fear you won't meet your goals and expectations? 
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Recommended books!

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If you want a BAD EXAMPLE of too much detail in the wrong places, read Eragon. Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon when he was a very young writer, and it shows. He puts more detail into a building than he does into how his character is feeling, more often than not. HOWEVER, that didn't stop him from becoming a best selling author! And, the story is still a lot of fun, in spite of the bits of immaturity. 

If you want a GOOD EXAMPLE of just the right amount of detail in the right places, then Christopher Paolini's second book, Eldest, is amazing. It's my favorite in the Inheritance Cycle. We, the readers, are given more insight into the characters, their goals, their feelings, and whether those things are being met or disappointed. The author matured a LOT between this book and the first one.