My family joined a local archery club this year. I don’t have a bow, so I use the time for writing while my husband gathers up the kids and all their gear and hauls them to the range.

The three of them have taken to repeating a phrase Mel Gibson’s character says in The Patriot. After his family has been attacked by Red Coats, he tells his young sons:

Mel’s talking about fighting the enemy, but the principle applies to target shooting as well. If you aim in the general direction of a target and miss, you’re likely to miss by a lot. But if you aim at a small point on the target–say, the bullseye–and you miss, you’re still likely to hit the target. It might not be a perfect shot, but it’s certainly better than swinging your arrow wide right. Aiming at a specific point increases the likelihood of landing a good shot.

It’s a principle that applies to all sorts of things in life. Today, I want to talk about how it applies to writing.

One of the biggest challenges a writer faces is ensuring the reader feels your story. That they care about your characters and their problems.

And because our potential audience is wide and diverse, our instincts can lead us astray here. We think that in order to make EVERYONE care about our stories, we need to keep our descriptions generalized and nonspecific. We worry that pinpointing things too clearly excludes some of our readers.

But the reality is just the opposite.

We woke up on Easter Sunday to news of Catholic churches and hotels being bombed in Sri Lanka. Not long ago it was the attack on a mosque in Christchurch that stole the headlines and broke our hearts. In both of these situations, various media outlets snapped pictures and filmed segments of empty shoes left behind by the victims.

When there’s a demolished building to capture, why settle for a shoe? Why zoom in that far? What makes a tightly cropped shot of a single slipper more compelling than a wide-angle shot showing the range of the devastation?

In Budapest, Hungary there’s a memorial along the Danube River to honor Jews killed during WWII. Fascist militiamen lined them up along the bank, ordered them to take off their shoes, and then shot them so that their bodies fell into the river and were swept away. Tragic. Evil. Years later the memorial was constructed so that we would never forget what happened.

There’s something about empty shoes, abandoned in the road, that evokes desperation in all of us, tells us something’s wrong.

Did a violent force rock these people out of their shoes? Did the shoes fall off as they ran in fear? Or, like those massacred along the Danube, did someone hold a gun to their head and force them to step out of the comfort and intimate familiarity they slid into every morning?

Shoes are a very human thing. Nothing on earth depends on leather and rubber to protect their feet like we do. Regardless of where we worship or lay our heads down at night, the forlorn, empty shoe is a specific image we can all identify with.

It’s certainly not the only thing we share–how sad if that were true!–and as an author it’s your job to push through the temptation to settle for wide-angle generalizations. Look for specific images that evoke a response in you, the author. When you do that, you can’t help but land on descriptions that will compel emotion from a broad, diverse audience.

Because we’re all human. Regardless of our differences, the specific details that make us who we are are more universal and evocative than a cursory glance could ever establish. Such a snapshot risks highlighting nothing but our differences. If you want your reader to feel your world, to identify with it, zoom in close, show them all its gritty color.

Find something small to focus on.

When you aim small, your odds of hitting the target increase.

So tell me. Do you have trouble zooming in on details? Can you think of a specific image in a news story, movie, or book that stuck with you long after you walked away? Do share!

Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.

Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.

It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.

To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.

For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.