{"id":184,"date":"2015-05-05T14:28:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T19:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=184"},"modified":"2015-05-05T14:28:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T19:28:45","slug":"how-much-description-is-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/05\/05\/how-much-description-is-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Description is Too Much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever read a book with long passages of description? \u00a0At first, you may engage (similarly to how I used to vow to use my planner at the beginning of every semester). \u00a0And then interest falters. \u00a0Some descriptive paragraphs feel like a slog through deep mud. \u00a0I admit that even I start to skim\u00a0over fat paragraphs, purely for self-preservation, after a while, and I LOVE description…<\/p>\n

So, how much of a good thing is too much?<\/p>\n

There are a few things I look out for, when I’m vetting\u00a0my description on second, third, fourth, etc. drafts:<\/p>\n

1. What does it look like? \u00a0And no, I don’t mean more description. \u00a0What I mean is this: take a peak\u00a0at each paragraph’s girth. \u00a0What do you find? \u00a0How is the pacing of your paragraphs? \u00a0Too many long ones in a row? \u00a0There is such a thing as reader’s fatigue, and it has much\u00a0to do with how the words look on the page. \u00a0A long paragraph of description appears\u00a0much more manageable to a reader when cut in half, even if nothing is deleted. \u00a0This isn’t a great practice, because your paragraphs should have some sort of topical flow, but it works in a pinch nonetheless.<\/p>\n

2. Redundancy… reduce\u00a0it! \u00a0Repeating yourself slows down the reader and makes them less interested. Repeating yourself slows down the reader and makes them less interested. \u00a0Yeah?<\/p>\n

3. The five senses are cool (the sixth even cooler) but don’t go o’erboard. \u00a0If there are more than two senses in any one paragraph, your prose begins to purple, to bloat, and to distend into something only Treebeard would have the patience to read.<\/p>\n

\"6926853b67558cc8275646e96cf9d8dcadd868b239c30fbc4181492671b9d508\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Pick your words carefully. \u00a0This actually has nothing to do with writing, and you’d be better off ignoring it.<\/p>\n

5. If you can say the same thing in less words, do it<\/em>. \u00a0This goes hand-in-hand with number 4.<\/p>\n

One caveat:<\/em>\u00a0don’t slow yourself down with these rules! \u00a0They are to be applied after the fact. \u00a0Write everything that comes to mind when a scene is fresh and flowing. \u00a0Nail down those ideas, make ’em concrete. \u00a0You can trim the fat later. \u00a0Writing a first draft with rules in mind quickly feeds the Inner Critic, and that guy’s a real bastard when creativity is at stake.<\/p>\n

That’s all for now!<\/p>\n

\"Sweet<\/a>
Sweet photo, Trey Ratcliff (damn, that’s a turrible last name…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2015\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever read a book with long passages of description? At first, you may engage, similar to how I used to vow to use my planner at the beginning of every semester. And then interest falters. Some descriptive paragraphs feel like a mud slog. I admit that even I start to skim over fat paragraphs, purely for self-preservation, after a while, and I LOVE description…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2,20,21,27,46],"tags":[59,60,61,83,88,97,112,113,187],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/02\/co-authorship\/","url_meta":{"origin":184,"position":0},"title":"Co-Authorship","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When someone asks for \"description,\" do you answer with \"leave nothing to the imagination?\" Well, as you may know, this isn't too classy, and although some folks may enjoy that, most probably don't.","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":752,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/03\/28\/master-insights-haruki-murakami\/","url_meta":{"origin":184,"position":1},"title":"Master Insights: Haruki Murakami","date":"March 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to bring your attention to Komatsu's last line, which I believe to be the best: \"What you can eliminate from fiction is the description of things that most readers have seen.\"","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/08\/review-of-scott-lynchs-lies\/","url_meta":{"origin":184,"position":2},"title":"Review of Scott Lynch's LIES","date":"January 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The debut story of Locke Lamora is gripping and crammed with an intense gamut of emotion. Though the secondary world is vividly realized, the characters are what make this novel shine. The dialogue is sharply witty and every motivation fits its corresponding personality like a snug winter jacket. Sections of\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Book Reviews\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}