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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8603
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think the general rule should be, Will the reader care?

I heard a speech once by an American who was a reporter in Nazi Germany during World War 2. When I saw the advertisement for his lecture I thought that sounded like it might be very interesting: someone who was there, in the midst of the enemy camp, while it all was happening.

He started off talking about the first time he saw Hitler speak. He said how there were a number of Western reporters in the hall. They had been placed off to the side of the podium. Well, not really beside the podium, but they weren't in front of the podium like most of the audience. They were off at an angle. Maybe a 45 degree angle from the podium. ...

He went on to describe the angle and positioning of the reporters for ten or fifteen minutes. I'm sure I am not alone in saying, I didn't care. I wanted to hear what he saw of Nazi Germany that maybe I wouldn't find in an ordinary history book, not the arrangement of seats in a lecture hall. But the man was just a maze of details. If these details had led somewhere, if they had supported some important point, that would be different. But they didn't.

At the other extreme, I've read books where the descriptions were too sparse and the story was sterile. If you just say, "George entered the room. It was dark. He felt scared" ... well that's boring. But if you say, "The room was pitch black. George carefully felt his way through the darkness. He felt that irrational fear of the dark that humans have experienced since the dawn of recorded history ... but not so irrational now. For somewhere in this room it might be lurking ..." etc., maybe those couple of sentences I threw together aren't all that effective but my point is, if you describe the darkness and his fear you can draw the reader in and help them to see the scene and share his feelings. Too short a description and the reader just says, "Oh, too bad for him. Whatever."

Too sparse a description can also make the scene difficult to understand. As you're writing the story you normally have a picture of the scene in your mind. Perhaps in your mental picture Sally is standing by the window and Allen is standing by the door. Is this something you should mention? If what happens in the scene is mostly that Sally and Allen talk, maybe not. But if a crucial element of the scene is that Sally sees something out the window that Allen does not, or that Allen tries to jump out the window but Sally is able to block him, then such a detail may help the reader to picture the scene the same way you do and understand it.

Original score: 2