Descriptions.

[GeorgeMichael]

Just a quick little tip when writing descriptions in your stories (which should be often).


Don't Overdo It!

In several books (cough lord of the rings cough) the author described things a lot. A LOT! The description was so plentiful that Da Vinci himself could have made billions of paintings exactly as Tolkien had originally imagined them. This may sound to be like the goal for all writings but it is wrong. Too much description can most of the times be overwhelming and throw people away from the story (For six years I've never been able to read a lord of the rings book, except for the Hobbit.)


Example of unnecessary description

Describing a leaf.


The leaf was shining a crimson red as it's delicate features which seemed likely to break with the wind that came along, it's edges were sharp like the blade of the katana shimmering in the moonlight, it fell with the grace of a ballet dancer who glided across the ballroom floor which was glowing with the luminous radiation from the glass chandelier which hovered silently above their heads.


Now, this is something that I've actually seen done, someone was to describe a leaf and that is what they wrote, as you can see that is just too much description, especially if the whole story is like that. It's fine as long as you don't overuse it and if it's necessary. Do not describe a leaf (unless it is a poem or a big part of the story) with a paragraph of description, it is unnecessary and aggravating to read. That paragraph can be reading much simpler like this.


The leaf, which was a crimson red, was surprisingly brittle as it gently fell from the tree down to the ground.


In that sentence you learn that the leaf is red, can easily break, and is falling gently, without the unnecessary paragraph. Of course this might only be my opinion but I think that it is one that should be looked upon often. Long descriptions are great in some parts when they are needed for describing something huge, but when people start describing every minute object with paragraphs then it just starts getting really irritating.

That's my two cents.