How much description is ok?

Story length is a consideration. In flash fiction, you are counting every word, short stories give a little more room, and novels, of course, allow for, and often require, in depth description. If you have space and need for lengthy description, consider that it does not have to happen all at once. Allow use to learn about your character bit by bit, though the natural flow of the narrative. Each scene will need at least a minimum description to help us understand setting and character, and that is a jumping-off point, but beyond that you will be guided by genre, your own style, and what seems right at the time. For a first draft of any type of story, it helps me to focus on just getting the story out there. Editing is where you will look at what you have and begin to cut then refine.

In more practicaly terms, describe until your gut tells you that's too much. Once you finish the first draft go back and see how it looks and go from there. Expereince, of course, will let you develop an eye for what works and what doesn't.

Good luck.

 

I feel it's important to get the reader interested in the character before loading the descriptions in there. I don't think a physical description of a character necessarily is as interesting (initially) as what the character is doing or what dilemma the character faces.

I describe my characters (relative height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, age, demeanour, you name it) in my story, but not all at once. Only as each characteristic becomes important, or what characters may notice about each other. I like to read books that introduce characters this way, so it's what I try to do myself.

I find that when a description is too loaded too soon I actually forget the characteristics anyway, and have to be reminded later on. It's what a character is like and what they are doing that captures my attention. Not what they look like, particularly—unless they are very unusual indeed. The description of somebody who is built like a pro linebacker, dressed in black with artifically black hair that sticks out straight in all directions, sporting heavy black eye makeup and a white-painted face might be important to the story. His (or her) looks will certainly leave an impression. So go for it, if that's the case. The description of somebody unusual will stick. But just the ordinary descriptions can usually wait till the story gets going.

 

I'm pretty new to this, but I also like to illustrate details of the character's appearance that help illuminate their character. I don't care about eye colour so much, unless really unusual for a reason. I might care if they have short bitten nails, or their clothes smell a bit fusty. Scattering references to small details in with the narrative seems to work for me, particularly helpful are things that infer plenty of cultural baggage along with them: the worn out Green Day tee shirt or nicotine stained fingers. I especially like details that may appear superficially contrary and make you wonder why. If we're given enough relevant cues, we can fill in the blanks.

 

If you are going to make a big deal of your character being blonde for eg. People assume it means she is a bimbo, I would rather you did it before I have fixed her as brunette.

I makes me as a reader have to stop and edit my memories of imagining the character before I continue.

I usually prefer to "cast" the main character myself. I think many people do which makes casting in screenplay adaptations so controversial online. This is unless the characters identity being revealed at a later point (to the readers surprise) was a plot point.

 

Keep in character for your narrator. Assume an anonymous narrator is a close friend of the main character(s). When you meet up with a friend, do you notice his or her eye color, height, weight, hair style? Probably not, unless that person's appearance has recently and drastically changed. So leave those details out. Your reader doesn't have to know these details either; you can and should trust your reader to have a decent imagination.

If you feel a characteristic is important, you can work it in from another character's reaction. But don't force it. If it doesn't come up naturally, it probably isn't that important anyway.

Here you get not only the hair color, but a little about Lana's character.

 

I think if you're going to make a big deal about a character being blonde for whatever reason, then it works well to get that characteristic in early. No problem with that.

I also personally do like to know what a character looks like, so I do try to work in the little details that matter fairly early on—via another character's impressions, usually. But a laundry list of descriptions dumped about each character right at the start of a story doesn't always work. We're just getting into the story, and want to find out what it's about, who is important, etc. Crucially, the contents of the list often don't stick at that point. We don't know anything about these people yet, and are still waiting for the focus of the story to kick in.

However, there are people here on the forum who say they do like to have this list available at the start, that they don't want to proceed with a story till they have what a character looks like firmly fixed in their minds—for fear of getting the wrong impression, like the blonde/brunette thing you mentioned. Fair enough.

I guess you make your choice, as a writer, which type of reader you want to please, and go for it. There is no 'right' way to do it. It's just that certain approaches work better for certain people.

 

Isn't it a bit outdated to still associate blondes with being bimbos?

 

I would be more inclined to assume she dyes considering the percentage of natural blondes in North America is somewhere around 5%.

 

As a narrator, I'll admit to being a bit biased... but I really wish more writers would read their own work out loud. Personally, I think nothing encourages aggressive edits as effectively as hearing wonky descriptions and other awkward stuff, after they've been revealed by a human voice.

 

Love this one! I'm certain you're right.

 

Yes, that's a great tool. Even more effective if you read it out loud to other people who start dropping off the branch fairly early on. If you feel your ego shrinking to the size of a walnut during the process, then you 'know.'

 

I think it can be helpful, instead of concentrating on how much to describe, focus on how you're describing the scene. You definitely want to avoid info-dumps, but what you might find helpful is writing a list of the character traits that you want to include in your story. For example it might look something like this:
- Dirty brown hair that always looks matted
- Grey eyes
- Tall
- Lazy
Then, throughout your story, instead of allocating a paragraph to list off a description of the character, drop in little snippets throughout the piece. I disagree with the statement that a detail MUST be relevant to include it. You can definitely incorporate beautiful description, as long as you are deliberate about restricting the amount of flowery language and the 'info' that it contains. You could try stopping every few lines and purposefully inserting a 'conversational' comment or observation to stop it from becoming too heavy.

But in short, don't feel like every single sentence should only contain absolutely necessary information. Some of the most beautiful books are those that capture our attention by the vibrancy of the scene they portray, but this is always balanced....