Writing Advice, II

Something I learned while writing for my Appreciation of the Writing Craft class which was reinforced later in the lectures: use details. I was writing a scene, and I almost wrote it this way:

"She was gone before ten minutes had passed."

Then I thought, gee, that's boring. I could make this so much more interesting if I related the lapse of time with what the main character is doing. So it came out like this:

"She was gone before I had finished stocking the peanut butter."

Isn't that so much better? I like it infinitely more, at least. It's so much more interesting, more colorful, more descriptive. I'm going to try to employ this 'method' (of what? I don't really know) more and more in my writing.