Economical description

pickarooney

Something I struggle a lot with is the level of detail required to establish a scene - using just enough words to give a real sense of place without killing the narrative. Some writers seem to get away with, even thrive on reams of descriptive prose (Donna Tartt, Arundhati Roy, Umberto Eco...) but personally I just can't read beyond half a page of any of them without my eyes glazing over and I get the impression that most people would rather the writer just get on with it.

Does anyone like heavy description and are there any kind of rules an author needs to stick to in order to keep you reading? I think it might be interesting to get people here to write a couple of paragaphs describing a room or other location with two characters and see how they manage to transport the reader without comatising him/her.

coffee_cake

I hate reading authors such as mr goodkind, who spend about 5 pages describing someone's feelings as they pull out their sword, and how they felt every other time they'd gone into battle in their whole lives :rolleyes:
So I don't like too much. On the other hand, I found bakker's "darkness that comes before" (just going on recent reads here) very descriptive, and yet it fit in perfectly with the story. There's a time for description, and there's a time for short and sharp action, and if you can balance the two it's all good.

I like the idea of us all writing short paragraphs to compare though

Dublin141

I'm a skimmer when it comes to heavy description. I love when a writer can sneak in the descriptive details without me even realising I read it.

I might finish a book with pages of description, but I'll only take in the first two lines of any big block of description, so the rest is wasted on me. I'm a little easier on say epic fantasy, but I probably wouldn't read the sequel if I felt like I was skimming in every chapter. I know a lot of people probably enjoy the description, but I don't want every single minute detail spelled out to me.

It's not half as annoying as repetitive description though. Recaps on appearance every time a character shows up again drives me crazy. I admit to being a picky reader though.

ThePinkCage

For me, the secret of good writing is being able to convey a mood or describe a scene in a few well chosen words. Rather than just explaining what happens, great rises evoke the senses to create their descriptions, which cuts out a lot of unnecessary wordage.

There are always exceptions, but by and large, I believe in keeping it lean.

The Mad Hatter

I find it depends very much on the book. I find it much easier to forgive the labyrinthine descriptions in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy than those in, say, Lord of the Rings (though I love both) because they contribute very much to the atmosphere of the books as a whole, whereas the lengthy descriptive sections in Tolkien often slowed the pace of the book to a crawl, especially near the beginning. In Gormenghast that's ok because everything is about ritual and repetition and age.

EileenG

I admit it, I'm a philistine. When I see big paragraphs of description, I skip them, even if they are beautifully written. I read because I care about the characters in the story, not the scenery. But yeah, too much internal monologue can be very boring too.

So if you can weave your description and internal monologue into the story without slowing it up, I'll read anything you write.

Arfan

I try to blend description into the action. "He strode down the long hall" rather than "It was a long hall. He strode down it"

pops

I love descriptive passages that use words to conjure the picture in my head as if it was in front of me. Very few writers have the necessary grasp of the language to be able to write like that. 'Heavy description' is never that when it is well done. Some which I love are Donna Tart; John Banville; Iris Murdoch; Sebastian Faulks and Margaret Atwood.

Very often if there is a piece of writing which is beautifully written. I'll stop and re-read out loud like it was poetry (I know - geek or what!) No matter how amazingly written anything is, it has to have the backbone of a good story to support it otherwise I just won't finish it!