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I know, I know. If you don't describe how beautiful the sunset was, how will you ever reach that 50k for NaNoWriMo? Personally, I am way too conservative when it comes to details and descriptions. It may be my biggest fault as a writer. A great writer is one who has found the perfect balance on how much description to show.
Description is what makes or breaks your book. One time, I was reading this book about this girl with a really lame life, and the descriptions made me feel as if I was there. The problem was, I didn't particularly want to be there. At least not for more than a paragraph or two. I almost stopped reading, because it just wasn't enjoyable to experience what she was experiencing for that long. It made me want to throw up.
So, am I saying that you should only make the reader feel like s/he is there if the place is filled with butterflies and flowers and rainbows and double rainbows? Of course not! I'm saying, maybe you don't need to drag on and on about how awful it is, and keep repeating again and again how the place always smells of rotten potatoes. The reason why is, if your character is living in the smell of rotten potatoes, eventually her senses will get used to it. So why put your poor reader through it again and again every time the character goes there?
A general rule: only use descriptions that are relevant. Don't go on and on describing something, without any action in there at all. It's boring!! Don't act like time has stopped just so you can take in the view. It isn't realistic, and it's boring to read for a long time without anything happening that moves the story on. If you really think that it is crucial to describe that beautiful sunset, do your readers a favor and keep it short and sweet.
On the other hand, you can be like me and never have enough description and detail. While other people take their first draft and edit half of it out, I have to add a ton of stuff into it, so that my readers will see what I want them to see and feel what I want them to feel. Usually I have to completely rewrite everything, because in the first draft there was nothing more than 'Jack did this, Jack did that," then some random dialogue. Please, comment below if you have the same problem! I haven't met a single writer that's like me in that way.
Overall, I think my point is this: Think about what you are writing. Describe what is relevant, and don't drag on with long descriptions without any action to break it up. Also, describe enough to bring life to your characters and your story.
Bye for now!
Very thoughtful and insightful. I like what you said about the rotten potatoes! You don't have to describe every. single. detail. But you do need to put the pictures, places, and people in your head into the mind of your readers. I think the other extreme happens when writers have such a vivid idea of what is going on in their own minds that they think it is obvious and don't give their readers enough descriptive clues to feel it for themselves.
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