: Re: How much should I describe things or persons, that are not important for the story? I discussed a book with a friend, and he disliked that the author described a person who is dying shortly

Your friend is right. Don't describe things that aren't important for the story. However, keep in mind that things can be important for a variety of different reasons. You may want to describe to establish:

Setting. This is obvious, and it's what most people think of.
Character: Peter's apartment was full of empty pizza boxes crusted with dried cheese. Neither the boxes nor the cheese are important to the story per se, but this detail tells us that Peter is a slob.
Mood: Think of the opening chapter of Dracula, where Bram Stoker describes the approach to the Count's castle. Most of the things described are not important in themselves, but they establish the mood of mystery and menace.
Theme: In a war story, you might not need to describe the bullet-riddled body your protag finds in the field. On the other hand, doing that might be crucial to illustrating that War Is Hell.

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@Cugini967

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: When to accept an editor's rewrite request? So there's an editor who has accepted a story of mine for publication... but he wants me to change the ending. Normally I'm pretty open to editorial

@Cugini967

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@Cugini967

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: You've already read a lot, which is a good thing. I suspect what you're missing at this point is reading to learn: taking something that you love which is well-written, and tearing it apart

: Re: How much should I describe things or persons, that are not important for the story? I discussed a book with a friend, and he disliked that the author described a person who is dying shortly

More posts by @Cugini967

: Expositing a lack of racial difference I have a story set in a fantasy-Africa, in which the protagonist must make her way from her rural home to a coastal city in order to seek medical treatment

: When to accept an editor's rewrite request? So there's an editor who has accepted a story of mine for publication... but he wants me to change the ending. Normally I'm pretty open to editorial

: Techniques for writing internal monologue I've seen the thoughts of a character written in a few different ways: Example 1: Indirect Ender liked it better, though, when two boys played against

: You've already read a lot, which is a good thing. I suspect what you're missing at this point is reading to learn: taking something that you love which is well-written, and tearing it apart

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