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Descriptiveness

Is being descriptive an advantage in a historical fiction novel? Does the reader find it emotionally satisfying reading a lot of well described prose with beautiful vocabulary? That is the way most famous classics of yore were written.

Asked by: S G Romee

  1. Ivor Randle on August 19, 2012

    Should I describe your kitchen to you? Send me a picture and I'll describe it in the most beautious...or dark...or comical terms.

    Or I could describe my own kitchen, in the same selection of terms.

    Or you could send me that picture of your kitchen and I'll describe the differences between mine and yours.

    Basically, describe what people don't know, and be as minimal or as prosaic as you wish, that's just your style and some will love it and some hate it. My art teacher at school had a sign that read: "Art does not recreate what can be seen; it makes things visible". If you can describe what people already know and make them see it anew then however you write it it will be wonderful, but whether people like it or not will always remain down to their taste.

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  2. Adrian Sroka on August 19, 2012

    To use a traditional example.

    Thomas Hardy's descriptions of Settings are brilliant, but they are much to long for agents or the publishers reader. But you can learn from them. Long descriptive narratives should be avoided like the plague.

    Short descriptions are best when describing characters or scenes. It is better to have your characters describe things using thoughts and dialogue.

    Budding authors should research how the best short-story authors describe things.

    I try to decsribe things in the shortest amount of words.

    To quote Henry James , 'In art, economy is beauty.'

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  3. Jonathan Hopkins on August 19, 2012

    I tend to agree, but then I write adventure-based stories. Your reader must feel the period your characters inhabit but they, not their surroundings, are paramount. If they could exist in any time you've not done your job.

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  4. Gilly Ansell on August 20, 2012

    I must admit that if there is too much description I get bored reading it. I like to have a little bit if description and for my own mind to imagine the rest. This is the reason why I rarely watch films of books I have read because after reading a book I have an understanding of the place/person in my head but when I see the film not only does it miss parts of the book out, but the places/characters look nothing ike I had imagined them to. For me, less is more.

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  5. S G Romee on August 20, 2012

    Personal preferences are on one side of the subject under discussion. What sells with the majority of the readers is what matters. An experienced writer who has had a number of books published would be the right authority to reveal the importance of beautifully worded description of an ambiance in which the plot has been set.

    I feel the right kind of description is like the frames of a film clip. I feel it transcends the reader to the environ in which the scene is being enacted and makes him/her relate with the characters in the scene.

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