Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

Do you like a story with lots of description? Or do description heavy stories bore you?

For me it depends on genre and my mood. Sometimes I just want a quick and action packed story, and other times I want to feel dizzy with lots of whimzical description.

What do you prefer and how does it effect your writing?

I like enough description to understand the setting. Description that runs on for paragraphs at a time bore me and I tend to skip them, preferring to get to the meat of the story.

Funny you ask this question...I just read a book yesterday that was heavy on description and I was forced to decide if I liked it or not. It was historical. 1665 Plague-ridden London, to be exact, so you can imagine how important accurate description would be. In many ways, it did make the story richer. But after the third straight paragraph in a row describing the crap in the streets, and the pigs, and the smell of smoke and human feces, I was over it. And the clothes--my gosh. The dresses (I absolutely detest when the material is named--I don't know the different between worsted and cambric--who cares!?!) and petticoats and ribbons and wigs and made-up faces. Enough already!

I decided that description is fine as long as it serves the purpose of deepening the character through whose pov I'm seeing things. WHY is she grossed out, impressed, scared, amazed, etc. by what she's seeing? What am I learning about her through the way she sees her world? Why say, "Pigs tromped through the muck in the streets," when you can say, "The pigs that tromped through the muck in the street made her think of her father's farm and filled her with a longing for home."

It can't be description for descriptions's sake alone.

For me, I think it depends a lot on the writers skill and the importance of the thing/place being described to the story. I remember reading Eco's The Name of the Rose with a three page description of the carvings on the door and it being fascinating. But too often excessive description seems just that excessive- like the writer was trying to meet a word count or description was just a mechanism the writer fell back on whenever the story stalled.

Oh gosh... 3 pages of carvings description? No matter how talented the writer is, I'd probably have fallen asleep before the end of it. ;)

Give me description to start up my imagination, but let me deal with the rest.

I've read some books with long descriptions. When I reached to them, they made me nervous. Readers like to follow the story as soon as possible; but sometimes descriptions are necessary (of course not too long descriptions) and the readers shouldn't loose their patience.

Robin wrote: "Funny you ask this question...I just read a book yesterday that was heavy on description and I was forced to decide if I liked it or not. It was historical. 1665 Plague-ridden London, to be exact..."

I DNF'd a historical fiction for a similar reason. I forget which book it was, but just remember thinking, "I get it, it's freaking smelly and gross! Stop reminding me!"

Bisky wrote: "Do you like a story with lots of description? Or do description heavy stories bore you?

For me it depends on genre and my mood. Sometimes I just want a quick and action packed story, and other tim..."

I enjoy description up to a point. Just give me a few lines to describe, perhaps, a character's living space so I have an idea of their personality, tastes, if they have money or not...

Tell me about the "fine Persian rug on the parquet floor in their hallway", but don't I don't need specifics on where they purchased the rug, and the design and color of the rug, and its shape, etc.

I try to write enough description to give the reader just the amount of info necessary to draw their own conclusions about the character, setting, or whatever. But that's just me, and what I go for.

And who knows if I'm even any good at it! O__o

Short, succinct descriptions. Long details bore me, and I'll just skim them, and probably end up missing clues and things that I should pay attention to.

I actually listened to an unabridged audiobook of Les Miserables to force myself to listen to the long descriptions instead of skimming them.

I vastly prefer description to be parceled out throughout an actual scene playing. For example, character walks through living room to answer door, you give me a quick outline of what she passes, character walks in door talking, give me a quick note of how he looks, they proceed outside, you're going to describe a bit of the garden here and there. The description fleshes out the action that way, rather than going for pages and pages.

I agree. Descriptions mixed with actions, dialogues and whatnot are easier to assimilate. And can be more fun. I prefer reading about someone hitting their toe on an out of place furniture as they enter the room rather than reading that the furniture has been moved around. Both will tell you the same thing but the first one will stay with you longer. :)

I think it depends on the genre for me. In general, I like a mix of dialogue/action and description. Although, I do hate it when there is dialogue with a long description in the middle. I find myself skimming the description to get back to the dialogue.

Example
"Do you like my flower garden?"
As I looked out at the garden ............ 4 paragraphs about the flowers and the season and the weather.
"I've never seen anything like it."

Then even if I remember what the last question was, I find myself thinking. Did they have a long pause while that person thought all of that?

G.G. wrote: "Oh gosh... 3 pages of carvings description? No matter how talented the writer is, I'd probably have fallen asleep before the end of it. ;)


It's not for the faint of heart. I can't imagine trying anything like that myself.

I've been playing with this notion and suggest that it depends upon voice, narrator, and tone. Typically, no. But if you're going for an "as told to" feel then embrace it.

True. I think it goes with the protagonist. For example, Sookie (True Blood) will describe everything she wears, even when she uses make-up (what she uses and where and even how). Although I'm not saying I'd do that, for her it felt 'normal'. It kind of went with her persona. I couldn't imagine a guy doing so though. However, I could imagine a guy spending more time describing a car for instance. So it all depends on the characters, or on how you want the readers to see them.

Snookie is a good example of description that works. The MC's attire & her feelings about it reflect scene we're about to read. Also, things sometimes "happen" to her clothes that make them great props. Remember the white dress in the projectile blood vomit scene at the vamp bar? HAHA!

I'm in agreement that less is more. And I have a tendency to run too lean on description. In one revision of GA, I added 40k words of description, world-building, and character interactions. Some of it ended up being edited out, but I first draft more action/dialogue than ambiance.

What is good to keep in mind is that if the description goes on a bit the average reader either jumps along to the action or just plain closes the book.

For me, it really depends on a) my mood, b) how well the style suits the story and c) how skilled the author is at writing in that style. I don't generally enjoy either extreme: spending a whole page on a sunset is a bit much (I'm looking at you, Terry Brooks) but if the description is all too sparse it tends to make me less interested in the book.

Some stories require descriptions but they need to be integrated into the flow of the narrative. 'Data dumps' can get boring in a hurry.

Some forms of fiction demand description though; genuine science fiction is based on a technology or scientific idea that needs to be explained for the story to make sense.

@Michael True they need to be explained but to some degrees. I've read a book lately that made me feel I was back in school reading physics and chemistry books in lieu of a science-fiction story. Sorry, but nope. If you need to explain fine, but do it in a fashion that it is still interesting at least. :/