: Re: How specific should descriptions of settings/appearances be? Some people tell me there are not enough descriptions in my book, some say there are too much. How do you know how much detail is

@Goswami879

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Readers are excellent finding problems, but terrible at diagnosing them

If your readers are complaining about something, then something is almost certainly wrong with your descriptions. But it may not be exactly the thing they are complaining about.

Now, armchair editors from across the internet who haven't even seen your writing are even worse, but I'm going to give it a shot anyways.

I suspect that you have a focus problem.

I can't find any good examples at the moment, but if you've ever seen a side by side comparison of a picture where only the subject is in focus and a picture of the same scene taken with a broad focus, the difference is striking. In a well-focused picture your eye is immediately drawn to the subject. The focus shows the reader how they are supposed to be taking in the picture, and the viewer feels that they understand it better than if all parts of the image were of equal clarity.

Focus applies to written descriptions as well. The order in which things are described, how long the story spends describing each thing, and what sorts of words they use in the description all play a part. Noir is a classic example. Take a look at how much time is spent describing the beautiful woman who walks into the detective's office, compared to the descriptions other characters get throughout the novel. Similarly, the male leads of romance novels typically get extremely detailed descriptions as well.

Focus is more than just attention

Descriptions shouldn't just tell the reader what the character is seeing, but how the character feels about it. A character in the kitchen of a master chef might describe a knife as "clean, bright, and keen", while a character being menaced by the chef in a back alley might describe the same knife as "long, pointy, and sharp."

By controlling what focus is given to each description, the story tells the readers what parts of the scene are important to the viewpoint character, which in turn tells them what they need to remember about the scene.

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