: Re: Adding Detail/"Filling" the story I've got a lot of story fragments that contain the major plot, but that are also very short because everything moves so fast. What I find a lot in Novels

@Yeniel532

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I have faced the same problem. Going to professional editors/critique groups didn't help, as they all want you to rewrite the story as they would. Which is why you get scenes that spend a whole paragraph describing what the character wears.

Here's what worked for me. Imagine you are standing in the scene in your novel. Describe the scene as your main character (for that scene would), moving through the scene with the character. Add description only when it is something the character would notice. So if someone is wearing a Tshirt with Jeans, no need to describe it, as do you pay any attention to anyone wearing a Tshirt on the road?

But if the person has pink hair and is standing with a machine gun, then you would describe her, as your character would notice her.

What you describe will depend on the scene. A character running from zombies would not notice another person wearing a red T shirt with Nike shoes (as I recently read in a book). On the other hand, if your character is at a party flirting, they may easily notice these details.

My advice is, don't write stuff that you don't like reading. So when reading fiction, I skip whole paragraphs that describe the characters clothes/house/car, so I don't write those scenes.

It will take sometime to get the balance right, but keep at it until the scene looks perfect to you. Your muse is a better judge of good writing, so trust your inner voice.

Edit: Based on John's comment below: describe anything your character may find unusual, or may cause him to have a reaction. In addition to Johns comment below, something like plain white buildings may cause the character to think, "I'm bored of seeing the same colour buildings everyday", which will tell you something about the setting of the book.

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