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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36988
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36988
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I kept coming back to this passage in your question

> I keep feeling the need to explain everything in hyper detail

Please, consider just not to.

There's a saying along the lines of that the author's ability to use magic is inversely proportional to the level of detail to which that magic is defined or explained. To a first order approximation, we can just as well say "technology" as we do "magic".

There's also Chekhov's gun.

Basically, the more detailed the explanation, the more you box yourself in. Unless you actually _want_ to do that (say, because you're working within a universe defined by others and used by multiple storytellers where the stories need to be consistent with one another), it's usually better to limit yourself to what's actually needed. _Especially_ do not explain things in the text of your work that don't need to be explained for the reader to understand and enjoy the story!

[The worldbuilding is for you, not for your reader.](https://writing.stackexchange.com/a/30731/2533) (Except insofar as that a _self-consistent_ story tends to be more enjoyable to read, because it makes the reader go "wait, what?" less often.)

Anything that goes into the text the reader sees should be there to serve a purpose. Most often, that purpose should be to advance the story. Does the reader _need_ to know how the molecular frobulicator works, or do they simply need to know that when it goes boom, which it's going to in short order unless the engineers work their magic properly, it will blow a large hole along the entire length of the hull of the pressure vessel of the space station?

What you write down but which doesn't go into the text that the reader sees doesn't need to be very polished. Imagine all the notebooks kept by famous authors in order to keep the details of their stories straight; I doubt those would have made good bedside reading! I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if, especially before the widespread use of computers for writing, those were full of barely intelligible scribbles, cross-overs, different colors of ink, margin notes, and whatnot.

If you put a detail into a story, readers will expect that detail to serve a purpose, either now or later. That's Chekhov's gun; if there's a gun hanging above the mantlepiece by chapter one, it must go off by chapter four (or thereabouts). This, by the way, goes for every prop introduced into the story, not just firearms.

Use that expectation to your advantage, instead of being limited by it, or worse yet, limiting yourself by it.

Original score: 21