We talk about the differing opinions about the amount if detail in books and give some tips for your writing!
If you search for writing tips online, it doesn’t take long to find widely differing viewpoints on how much, or how little, description is needed to make a good book.
“I don’t care about the color of the sunset! This book describes way too much!”
“I can’t picture any of the locations. There needs to be more detail.”
“Stop it with the sappy ‘eyes like glittering moonlight’ descriptions.”
“I love sappy descriptions! I live for them!”
“I don’t care how the character looks. I’m only interested in their soul.”
“If I don’t know what this character looks like in the first two pages, I’m making up my own appearance for them.”
It’s confusing, right? One thing that is clear is that reading preferences vary significantly. Some people like a great deal of description and like to know every little detail. Others prefer to get right to the action. So how do you navigate this when writing your book? Presumably, you want to sell your book so you want to appeal to a large audience. How can you balance your writing style with what people want to read?
Know Your Genre and Age Group
One thing that is helpful is to know your genre and age group. And this includes subgenres, as well! Reading books in your niche and knowing about the fanbase that reads them will be helpful to you. I’m a big supporter of fanfiction. Look at what people write fanfics about. That will give you a good idea of what fans actually like.
Here are examples:
- Young adult supernatural – Typically likes a mild amount of description. Prefers description of characters over deep world building and environmental details. Adolescents are more emotionally driven, so the characters are paramount to them.
- Adult epic fantasy – Usually these are fans of books like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or the Witcher. More detail and rich descriptions are appreciated. Keeping a balance between character and world detail is key.
- Adult romance – Sensory descriptions work well for this fanbase. Touch, smell, taste. The world and environment are more of a background to the immediate moment and character sensations. Like muscles and flowing locks of hair.
- Young adult horror – Less detail is better for the characters and the world. Descriptions should focus on the scary stuff and setting the mood. To keep suspense, the plot needs to keep rolling forward and not get bogged down with flowery language.
How is Your Pacing?
When editing your story, pacing is important to pay attention to. How slow is the writing? How fast is the writing? Is it slow and fast at the appropriate moments?
If you think the pacing is off, the problem could be too much (or too little) description. When I want the narrative to take a pause, and give the readers a moment to breathe, I start describing things. I set the scene. I play into the senses. And when I want the narrative to feel heart-pounding, I use very little description.
A good balance of both optimizes your pace across your story.
Be True to Yourself
At the end of the day, you want to write a story that you want to read. If you are not happy with it and feel that it isn’t “you”, then it’s not worth it. Be as flowery as you want to be, and be as to-the-point as you want to be. It’s your story, after all.
