Hi, guys!
We all want to find that perfect balance of detail in our books.
Too little might not accurately depict the scene in our head, which could result in a serious miscommunication between you and your reader.
Too much will slow your reader down, possibly driving them out of the book.
So how much detail should you use?
The short answer, unfortunately, is…
It depends.
I know, that isn’t what you want to hear, but it’s the truth.
But here are some things to consider to help you decide what level of detail you need to provide for your reader.
Is it an action scene or a sex scene?
Is it the opening scene?
What genre are you writing?
Action scenes and sex scenes need to be gripping. They need to flow. They need to glue the reader to the page and keep them on the edge of their seat, holding that book in a white-knuckled death grip.
And if you stop to describe the brocade on the settee…
That won’t happen.
So maybe skimp on scenery detail unless it’s important to the action or “action” of the scene.
If you’re working on your opening scene, avoid info dumps at all costs. Don’t pile descriptive detail and world building and character backstory and the history of the type of garment the character is wearing into your opening scene.
Opening scenes need to have some pull, some gravity.
Hit your reader with some sort of interesting event or conversation, something to draw them in and keep them reading, and they’ll still stick around for the details later in the book.
As for genre, if you’re writing contemporary romance, you don’t have to describe every detail of the world. We live in it. There are certain things you can take for granted.
Modern readers know what a cell phone is. We know what it means to work full time. We know what a cat is.
You don’t have to explain these things at any point in time. You can say the basic name for what’s happening (“Ugh, I have overtime, again.”), and your reader will know that your character just got hit with an extra shift at work.
But if you’re writing sci-fi or fantasy, there are going to be a lot of things that require some explanation.
Your readers won’t see the name of your country and automatically know what kind of government is in place. They won’t just magically know how time is measured in that world.
So, there will need to be more details in a book of that sort.
And then there’s your own personal writing style to consider. Some writers are just more detailed than others. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The trick with detail is to spread it out. That way, your reader gets the information they need without feeling overloaded or bogged down.
And if you’re ever in doubt, enlist the assistance of a beta reader, alpha reader, or critique partner. You can always ask them to go into it with the intention of keeping an eye out for the level of detail.
Or, you can ask them after they read it if there was anything that needed clarified or any scenes where it just felt like you were beating them over the head with adjectives and scenery.
Now, I have a strong personal bias on this matter. I don’t like loading up on extra detail. I like my books to be “punchy.” As such, I have a tendency to multitask with the details I choose to include.
If you want more information on that method of employing of detail, check out this blog post:
Just disregard the little update section. Soul Bearer came out last October. I’ve released two other books since then, with another coming out this November, so the writing progress section of that blog is… outdated. Lol.
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Keep reading. Keep writing.
Later.