Too much description is bad?

[chongjasmine]

I noticed that a lot of people find long descriptions and similes boring. Also newer books tend to include less and less of both. It could be that only the books I'm reading are like this. But I honestly love both and use them a lot. Is it really boring or bad?

I think it depends on the purpose of the description.
If there is a purpose for the long description, it is not that bad.
If there is no purpose for long description, it is bad.

 

[SciFrac]

I think the key to good description is that it does more than just describe.

Agreed Gumboot, I think that's the trick. Description with purpose carries more weight. The more we tangle characters into their surroundings, the more description we'll need.

 

[JunkMonkey]

There is one kind of of over-descriptiveness that does really annoy me. The type which is obviously the result of the author having done a LOT of research and not wanting to waste any of it.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

No, but you would describe the car in slightly more detail if it's important to the story. I have no idea what a "ford mundano Ghia with a 2litre engine" looks like but, more importantly (maybe) I don't know if it's an old car, a new car, an expensive car, a cheap car, a death-trap on wheels, or the height of sophisticated driving luxury.

Unless the specifics of that description are somehow relevant to the story, then it will almost always be too much description. Your paragraph for example, I'll bet those details matter not one whit to the story proper. It's simply a long winded way of saying it's a luxury sports car. Give a line or two about how awesome the POV character thinks it is, sure, but a paragraph of pointless detail? Way too much. And all too often skipped over by the reader.

 

[abraves247]

It is ok to use a lot of description as long as it is relevant. But when I read a book that seems to have too much description and the story isn't moving along I tend to put it down.

 

[sknox]

I'm not sure that's true, honestly. I might google what something looks like occasionally, but usually that tells me the author did a poor job of describing what was happening.

Agreed. One could as easily say that a writer didn't need to care about words fifty years ago because the reader could simply look up the word in a dictionary. I can't imagine any sensible author writing in the expectation that his reader would check out of the story in order to check into a word.

 

[ralphkern]

Agreed. One could as easily say that a writer didn't need to care about words fifty years ago because the reader could simply look up the word in a dictionary. I can't imagine any sensible author writing in the expectation that his reader would check out of the story in order to check into a word.

Clearly McDevitt who came out with that in an interview is not a sensible writer... just a very succesful one

 

[Drakai]

Clearly McDevitt who came out with that in an interview is not a sensible writer... just a very succesful one

Being a succesful writer/artist/whatever doesn't mean everything you do is right. His excellence at other aspect can very well redeeem his mistakes.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Unless the specifics of that description are somehow relevant to the story, then it will almost always be too much description. Your paragraph for example, I'll bet those details matter not one whit to the story proper. It's simply a long winded way of saying it's a luxury sports car. Give a line or two about how awesome the POV character thinks it is, sure, but a paragraph of pointless detail? Way too much. And all too often skipped over by the reader.

Are you seriously telling me people these days are so ADHD they don't have the patience to read more than a few words of description before the STORY has to grab their attention again?

Why don't we all just throw in the towel and read film scripts? or comic books? or those bloody awful self-published books written (usually in the present tense) by morons who can't go three pages without having someone smashing through a car windscreen or having a wherewolf (sic) rip someone's arm off?

With lots of space on the page!

And exclamation points!

And lots of fu*king sweary words!


I am getting a terrible urge to go and read some Dickens...



LATER:

I just read chapter one of Bleak House. I feel better now.

 

[Ursa major]

A lot of description, yes, and in the present tense (where tense there is), but all in a wonderfully fully rounded voice. (Thanks for the link, JM. )

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Are you seriously telling me people these days are so ADHD they don't have the patience to read more than a few words of description before the STORY has to grab their attention again?

Why don't we all just throw in the towel and read film scripts? or comic books? or those bloody awful self-published books written (usually in the present tense) by morons who can't go three pages without having someone smashing through a car windscreen or having a wherewolf (sic) rip someone's arm off?

With lots of space on the page!

And exclamation points!

And lots of fu*king sweary words!


I am getting a terrible urge to go and read some Dickens...



LATER:

I just read chapter one of Bleak House. I feel better now.

Wow. Really touched a nerve, eh? I'm sorry that modern readers' expectations makes you think the sky is falling. But there it is.

And no, I'm not saying don't use description, rather don't grind the story to a halt to include description. You want every detail of that car in a story, then parse it out with some narrative, have the guy drive the damned thing for a transition and include bits of description between the action, 'action' as in actual narration, something happening, not necessarily asplosions and gun fights.

 

[Ursa major]

...not necessarily asplosions and gun fights.

I'm not sure I want to read about assplosions...



(But if they have to happen, little or no description of them is a must.)

 

[jastius]

Too much description is bad? Someone aught to tell that hack Steven King who has made a career of "why say it in 10 words if you can say it 100!!!!!"

fell on floor laughing...
victor hugo and les mis., he is my description king..

i think that the youtube generation no longer is capable of reading writing or speaking english. when they started making movies, they adapted books. now they adapt short stories. who knows? we might see the day where they adapt the side of the cornflakes box into a film script.

 

[Ursa major]

As an aside, short stories are good sources for films, because much less needs removing during their adaptation into scripts (and so crucial bits of the plot don't need to be removed or altered to fit the running time).

Of course, if a novel is mostly description, capturing that can be left to the art, costume and makeup departments and the location manager.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Wow. Really touched a nerve, eh? I'm sorry that modern readers' expectations makes you think the sky is falling. But there it is.

And no, I'm not saying don't use description, rather don't grind the story to a halt to include description. You want every detail of that car in a story, then parse it out with some narrative, have the guy drive the damned thing for a transition and include bits of description between the action, 'action' as in actual narration, something happening, not necessarily asplosions and gun fights.

I am getting old - of course the sky is falling and everyone under the age of 30 is a moron. Goes with the territory. (I just found out a former girlfriend is 62. That's scary.)

My real point (if I have one) is that books/reading/writing/narrative of any form is more than just story. If was only just about story and nothing else everyone would write like Hammet or Hemingway - but without the frills. Pure Lego brick narration. 'This happened then that happened'.

Rhythm, voice, colour (whatever the technical writerish term are - I don't know) are also needed. These days it seems to me, he says rheumy-eyed from the rocking chair porch - like some old codger from Simak novel, it seems to me that all people want is plot.

But then I'm an old fart with OAP ex-lovers, so what do I know?

 

[Drakai]

I'm glad some still love long descriptions. The replies brought a smile to my face.

 

[Professor Calculus]

I'm kind of glad, too. I'm currently writing a scene in which a character walks into a small booth, sits down, says a few words and picks up a card. Much of the scene to do with is why he walks into the booth and the way that the sights, sounds and smells of the place have meaning for him.

Of course, this scene might bore the pants off any readers it might ever have, but I'd like to think that this is due to my own inadequancies as a writer, not because I decided to write something that was more driven my the emotions of the characters rather than a high concept, plot-driven piece.

 

[Laeraneth]

These days it seems to me, he says rheumy-eyed from the rocking chair porch - like some old codger from Simak novel, it seems to me that all people want is plot.

If it makes you feel safer about the younger generation (wow, I haven't called myself a younger generation in a LONG time, but I'm going to assume from the 62 year old girlfriend that you're probably 20 years older than me at least!) I spend quite a bit of my writing time at the moment worrying if I'm dwelling a bit too much on the concerns, worries and internal thoughts of my main characters. (They both have very different points of view and sort of act as contrasting view to each other in many ways, though with unified purpose.)

I'm soldiering on at the moment because, basically, I think it works. The whole point of the story is that it's from my characters perspectives, constantly. There is nothing in my story OTHER than that they see think and feel, so if I didn't properly get inside their heads and make sure the reader can do the same, then they're not going to invest in my characters and they won't be interested in what's going on.

So... yeah... I'm all on board with using plenty of description. I appreciate that the 'younger generation' may not get on board with it quite so easily, but... well, it's a story about people, not a textbook. If they're not going to want to read about the people and what they're thinking, they're unlikely to read past the first page anyway!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Intensely detailed descriptions of characters is a personal bugbear of mine. Since when does any normal person spend so much time looking at someone else's nose?

 

[lauren$77]

Intensely detailed descriptions of characters is a personal bugbear of mine. Since when does any normal person spend so much time looking at someone else's nose?

He he - I think that very much depends on how emotionally involved said characters are with one another!