Recently, I published a post on using specificity in your writing. On that same note, here are a few scattered notes about how specificity can hurt or help you.
1. Rough Estimates
Rough estimates are a natural part of life--you look out at a crowd and you say, "Oh, that looks like about two hundred people." Unless you're some kind of magic, or actually have the sales numbers in front of you, there's pretty much no way you could ken that at a glance. That doesn't stop some characters from managing it, but excluding those, estimates are a necessary part of life and of writing.
There does come a point, though, where estimates become unrealistic. It takes me out of the story, for example, when someone says something like, "four or five people walked down the street." For me, that's an automatic, "Wait, what?" Maybe if the person's view is obstructed, or they're going by a sense other than sight, or the POV character has a problem with processing numbers or something I can understand it, but if you have a clear view of the street, the difference between four and five people should be easily told at a glance by most.
It's difficult to say when numbers can be given over to estimation, and it does depend on the person, but I would be much more likely, myself, to accept an estimation of "five or six" than "four or five," but probably wouldn't estimate until at least "seven or eight."
Every character, author, and reader is different, but be careful when estimating that it's realistic for someone to be confused over the number of something. If someone flashed a picture at me, then burned it and asked me to tell them how many things were in it, I'd have a much harder time telling four from five than if I was sitting in detention with a bunch of stationary students. I'd also have a much harder time telling four from five if it were dots I was meant to be counting, or even dogs--our brains block out information they don't see as important, which is one of the reasons estimation is necessary in the first place, so the smaller something is (and the less personable or important), the more difficult it becomes to count.
2. Brands
My specific grievance here is more of a pet peeve, I guess (or rather, my mother's pet peeve, which I am here to voice on her behalf) concerning clothing in particular, but it could apply just as well to other types of brands.
One of the things my mother often complains about with books is being bombarded with descriptions of clothing using brand names like "Armani" and "Gucci" and "Leviathan All Hail, All Hail Leviathan."
Being working class tomboys by birth, and for the most part having lifestyle tastes which match our income, the term "Gucci handbag" means nothing to us; I have a picture in my head of a leather purse. But you could say "Armani handbag" or "Prada handbag" or some made up company, and it won't change anything; a handbag is a handbag unless you tell me what it actually looks like. My entire thought process when you start throwing brand names around is "Clothes are happening. This character has money."
Most books aren't written for working class women with no taste in clothing, of course--unlike my mother, I have simply become accustomed to this reality. Still, there's a lesson to be learned here; when you include brand names, will your audience know what you're talking about? And more importantly, does your character?
If your character is a rich woman who's never so much as been inside a laundry room, is she really likely to know the difference between Tide and All? Pinesol and Spic And Span? If your character is a twelve-year-old girl who spends most of her time biking around town and antagonizing bullies, is she likely to know the difference between a Periwinkle diamond, a Kay diamond, and a rhinestone?
When you use a Brand Name in your work, take a moment to think about these things. If your narrator/POV character would know what it is, and your target audience would know what it is, great! You're all set! If your character/narrator know what it is but your audience wouldn't, then think about what it is you want to convey with the use of the brand name.
If you just want to show that the character is rich and has expensive tastes, "Gucci handbag" might be the way to go, but if this handbag is important, or is supposed to tell us something about the character, maybe throw in an adjective or two. If your character is mopping the floor with Pinesol, is it because she likes the smell? Does it mean something to her? And if your rebellious preteen finds a handful of diamonds, does it matter what brand they are? Or does it matter more what they look like, and whether or not they're real?
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