I was talking to an author friend of mine about his book. Honestly, it was a great read and I was impressed by one element in particular: his descriptions.
He was great at it! Not too many, but not too few. It felt like he let the reader’s imagination control the imagery, but gave enough to ground the story to a specific image. It worked well.
That being said, I noticed my own failings quickly. I’m awful at over-description!
The Curse of Over-description
The symptoms are straining for any author trying to craft amazing fiction. You get bogged down describing in detail every facet of a world you’re trying to build. It’s especially easy for speculative fiction or memoirs, because you really want to paint a picture in those genres.
There’s a good way to fix it, though. You simply have to figure out what a reader needs. It helps to have friends to read your work in the early stages, or alpha readers when you get to the point of allowing strangers to take a look at your manuscript.
My friend ended up explaining that he didn’t actually have the same issue I did, but that he did have his own issue. You see, there’s an equally dangerous possibility with writing: under-description.
A Barebones Manuscript
The Curse of Under-description
The symptoms are easy to fall into once you start to “trim the fat” in your writing. There’s too many ways to end up with a barebones manuscript.
You need to make sure to figure out what’s important to properly convey. Is it really important that the reader knows that the spaceship you’re discussing had five PD-40 Ion Engines with small carvings of elephant tusks and inscriptions in runes around the edges? Or is it better to say there’s five ornate ion engines?
Well, it depends. You can do “info dumps” as Ben Bova called them, but don’t do them constantly. You need a gentle touch!
Once again, those early readers are important. Get a friend to read through it, someone who’s going to be honest with you.
Hopefully this helps you! It comes from a personal place to me.
Maybe you’ll like some of my other posts on writing:
Where the First Draft Ends and Second Draft Begins
Going from Outline to Manuscript
Or maybe a couple of my reviews:
Book Review: The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Frank Ormond 
Really useful post. Thanks for sharing. I recently read a great old book which had some insight on this topic… It’s called ‘the art of plain talk’. Check it out if you’re interested!
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I’ll check it out! Thanks for the suggestion!
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Great topic. There is a such a fine line between over and under description. I think it depends on the type of genre it is and if it fits the authors voice. Some authors are amazing at world building and describing scenes (like J.R.R Toiken) but even he was heavy handed with it. Balance is very important when it comes to writing. 🙂
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