Overly described scenes or wonderful vision?

[lovelyreader21]

I feel that writing in a fashion that describes everything carefully and intricately can often just be a distraction. But if you're writing to describe emotion in vivid detail, or things that can make your reader actually feel emotion other than boredom, and contributes to the story, I feel like that's mainly when I find descriptive writing to be helpful and appreciated. In some books it works; as Merri said, take the Lord of the Rings series! I love Tolkien's descriptive language and way of immersing you into the world. However, that only works for certain books, I think. And certain authors. I tend to take the minimalist approach when writing, but when in certain situations or themes of my writing, it's sometimes helpful for intricate descriptions. Sorry for the ramble, haha. I've got a lot of thoughts on this, I suppose.

[designerrosa]

I prefer details, i think it takes a certain level of skill to describe a thing or person in so much detail its almost like am standing right there in the book.

[pretzelsnow]

I like overly descriptive scenes because they create a vivid picture in my mind.

[vadadagon]

I feel that writing in a fashion that describes everything carefully and intricately can often just be a distraction. But if you're writing to describe emotion in vivid detail, or things that can make your reader actually feel emotion other than boredom, and contributes to the story, I feel like that's mainly when I find descriptive writing to be helpful and appreciated. In some books it works; as Merri said, take the Lord of the Rings series! I love Tolkien's descriptive language and way of immersing you into the world. However, that only works for certain books, I think. And certain authors. I tend to take the minimalist approach when writing, but when in certain situations or themes of my writing, it's sometimes helpful for intricate descriptions. Sorry for the ramble, haha. I've got a lot of thoughts on this, I suppose.

I love LOTR but to be honest I hated all the signing (particularly in The Hobbit) which seemed to have no purpose and the songs didn't really relate to what was going on. They didn't really provide any additional input to the story other than the fact that they were signing.

[ALynnPowers]

There is a fine line between these two, huh?
I might lean more on the "overly described" if there is just too much detail. Personally, I think it's up the the reader to create the picture, not for the writer to tell everyone exactly what they need to be thinking about.

[Hadiqa]

There is a fine line between these two, huh?
I might lean more on the "overly described" if there is just too much detail. Personally, I think it's up the the reader to create the picture, not for the writer to tell everyone exactly what they need to be thinking about.

Agreed, though sometimes when the scene is overly described with useless details or details that will not help later in the book, I tend to find them boring and skip it.

[suzy1124]

What the world needs is more GOOD EDITORS!

[vadadagon]

There is a fine line between these two, huh?
I might lean more on the "overly described" if there is just too much detail. Personally, I think it's up the the reader to create the picture, not for the writer to tell everyone exactly what they need to be thinking about.

Very well said.

-- 22 Nov 2014, 16:12 --

What the world needs is more GOOD EDITORS!

Even the best editor can't help the worst author.

[suzy1124]

But at least an Editor can " minimize " the torture to the reader........" Less is More "

[Janiac02]

I don't know if I have a preference. The books I read tend to fall into the Fantasy genre, so in that case I think I appreciate the nearly superfluous description of the unfamiliar. In other cases I might prefer the minimalist approach. Neither detracts from the story for me.

[Lilapo9]

I like enough description so that I can capture what the author had in mind when they were writing their characters and settings. The more description the easier I can transport myself into that story especially if I am reading a story that I have nothing in my own experiences to base off of.

[Alexavier-Taiga]

I love overly descriptive things. I have a great imagination, but I always think "but what if this isn't how the author pictured it?!". In my own writing I describe a lot, but I don't describe characters much. I will only describe what their mannerisms are, not what they look like.
Scenery and sounds are what I most like. It frustrates me when you are reading a book with not much description, then all of a sudden you have to stop reading for a moment because something happened that didn't coincide with what you were picturing in your head.
E.g. he walked to the window and stared out at the river beyond the garden fence what? There isn't a window there! And since when was there a river?
Etc.

[3chicnP]

I like a vague description because that lets you imagine further. If it's super descriptive then I can't picture that character in my mind.

[Himmelslicht]

I feel that writing in a fashion that describes everything carefully and intricately can often just be a distraction. But if you're writing to describe emotion in vivid detail, or things that can make your reader actually feel emotion other than boredom, and contributes to the story, I feel like that's mainly when I find descriptive writing to be helpful and appreciated. In some books it works; as Merri said, take the Lord of the Rings series! I love Tolkien's descriptive language and way of immersing you into the world. However, that only works for certain books, I think. And certain authors. I tend to take the minimalist approach when writing, but when in certain situations or themes of my writing, it's sometimes helpful for intricate descriptions. Sorry for the ramble, haha. I've got a lot of thoughts on this, I suppose.

I love LOTR but to be honest I hated all the signing (particularly in The Hobbit) which seemed to have no purpose and the songs didn't really relate to what was going on. They didn't really provide any additional input to the story other than the fact that they were signing.

^^^
Me too! I thought I was the only one hating the singing. I hate people singing without background music for some reason

I understand that some singing gives some "culture" and vibrance to the story but that was too much.

[krisliz88]

I think that it really depends on the book. I am a very imaginative person and depending on what I'm reading some times I like to create the image in my mind because I don't necessarily like the author's description. I know that is terrible but sometimes the book just flows better for me that way. It is funny because there have been a bunch a books that I have read that have been made into movies and I am always so disappointed because I go to see the movie and they are a) almost never better than the book and b) what I imagined a scene or a character to be is not what appears!