: Re: Detail vs. filler How can I minimise the "filler" text that I end up writing when fleshing out a scene with detail? An appropriate level of detail seems to me to be a fundamental requirement

@Tiffany377

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why is the couch brown?

Because it's made of leather. Yes, some details are just details. But if it doesn't matter why say it?

why is the couch on the left side of the shop?

Because there's only one tv hook up and they wanted it to face the TV or some other practical reason...if it doesn't matter to the story WHY, then it isn't relevant to the reader, and therefore isn't something that the reader should care about or you should include.

If you take time to answer all the "Whys" you can possibly think of, which don't actually matter to serving the plot or story, it will bog down the reader. Might be fun, at times, but you can ruthlessly cut them. Unless they serve a particular purpose unless they accomplish something. But even IF they accomplish something from the list below, remember this: if several things establish mood, character or furthering the plot in a specific way, you have the option of cutting the "dead weight" later. Showing the same thing in different ways is good, but when it comes time to cut, knowing how many times you've said the same thing in different ways is useful, so you can cut the weakest or least well-written thing.

Setting details can accomplish a couple of things:

Move the plot along.
Establishing a mood/danger/stakes.
Establishing a character. The sofa's on the left side of the room because it makes hard to open the door, giving your protagonist time to make an escape out the window, establishing that your protagonist often needs time to escape out of a window or is paranoid.

So setting, like every other detail, has to do its work in furthering the story. Every detail given has to do a job, be it setting the scene so that the action later makes sense (moving the plot along), setting the mood (@Galastel's example is perfect on that level), and showing the character through the setting, whether it be how they interact with the setting, or what it says about them as a person.

Finally, you can tell us what a setting is like in order to SHOW something, but you shouldn't simply be telling. If you do that, that's when it becomes tedious. Know what you are showing, then examine whether it's simply a side note or if it serves the story in a meaningful way.

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