I love reading novels where beautiful descriptive passages transport me into the story. However, description can also be a snore-fest that beckons me to skim to the exciting part.
There’s no magic percentage that tells you how much description you should have in your novel, though genre can give a clue.
If you’re writing fantasy or sci-fi, you’ll need more world building. For example, Jeanette O’Hagan had to devise a whole subterranean realm for her Under the Mountain series; and Kristen Young had to create a futuristic dystopian society for her novels Apprentice and Elite.
More description may also be needed if you’re writing about less-familiar time periods, exotic locations, or unusual occupations or hobbies.
Finding that ‘sweet spot’, with just the right amount of description, isn’t always easy. However, here are some tips to help you spin descriptive gold.
Keep it on a Need-To-Know Basis
Regardless of whether you’re creating a whole new world or writing a contemporary novel set in familiar surroundings, think about how much the reader needs to know in order to understand and enjoy the story. You may have read dozens of books on manners and customs in Victorian England, but does the reader really need to know that the spoons are electroplated nickel silver? Maybe they do if the characters are pretending to be rich, but are really using a cheaper alternative to sterling silver. If it’s not important, keep that nugget to yourself.
The need-to-know principle, also depends on your audience. For example, if you’re writing inspirational romance for a Christian audience, you can assume they’ll understand what a church service or youth group might look like, even though there may be differences based on denominations. However, if you’re writing for a mainstream audience, the way they picture ‘church’ may be very different to the way your characters perceive it. In such cases, a little more description may be necessary.
Does It Advance the Story?
Every piece of description should advance the story in some way. Does it tell us something about the setting? Something about the character? Will it become relevant for the plot? You’ve probably heard the quote attributed to Chekhov: ‘If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.’ This is still good advice. Don’t describe something in detail just for the sake of it, no matter how beautiful or interesting it may be to you.
Avoid Info Dumps
Also think about when the reader needs to know certain pieces of information. Rather than spending two pages describing someone’s kitchen, tell us the things we need to know in the first scene (e.g., that the chipped coffee mugs are on a shelf above the electric jug). Then in a later scene, tell us what we need to know for that part of the story (e.g., that the window behind the sink gives the heroine a clear view of the backyard while she’s washing the dishes).
The same goes for descriptions of your characters. Rather than giving a whole paragraph about their appearance, clothing and accessories the first time we meet them, give a few descriptors initially and then drop the other pearls of information in when needed. For example, have them sit down and kick off their alligator shoes, or take their glasses out of their pocket to read the label on the medicine bottle.
Through the Eyes of Your Character
Rather than giving a flat or objective description of something (e.g., there were saucepans hanging from a hook in the kitchen), show your character doing something with them. For example, Sebastian takes a saucepan off the hook and fills it with water, or Samantha uses the saucepan as an impromptu drum during karaoke night at her house.
Also remember that people will perceive things differently depending on their personal characteristics (e.g., background, interests, occupation, gender, race, age) and the characteristics of the environment itself (e.g., weather, time of day, crowded or sparse, urban or rural). Show the setting through their eyes. What do they see, hear, smell, touch or taste?
Even the same character will experience the same environment differently depending on the circumstances. If your heroine is walking through an alleyway during her lunch break, she might notice the lovely latticework on a balcony, or stop to appreciate the tantalising aromas wafting through the back door of a coffee shop. However, if it’s 1.00 am and she’s trying to escape a crazed killer, she’ll notice the dumpster she can hide behind, or the broken bottle she could use as a weapon.
Leave Something to the Reader’s Imagination
Don’t feel as if you have to describe everything, even if it is relevant to the story. Give the reader the information they need to understand your story world, but also trust them to fill in the blanks.
My historical novel Scattered is set in Nova Scotia in 1882. My heroine Maggie travels in various horse-drawn carriages at different points in the story, but I chose to give minimal description of those. I figured most readers could probably picture a Victorian-era carriage and it didn’t matter if their perception was slightly different to mine.
However, my heroine is also shipwrecked on Sable Island for a few chapters. It’s a tiny island off the coast of Nova Scotia, but only has very limited eco-tourism as it’s a protected site. Most readers wouldn’t be familiar with it, even Canadian readers. So I gave a lot more description of it based on my research. Through Maggie’s eyes, we see the colony of wild horses, the remains of shipwrecks, the interior ponds, and the lighthouse and the life-saving station.
Did I find the sweet spot? I hope so, but it’s definitely a learning curve. We won’t always get it right or please every reader. But by following these principles, we can hopefully make the reading experience as enjoyable as possible.
If you’re a writer, do you have any other tips or examples from your own writing process that you can share?
If you’re a reader, what has worked or not worked for you in terms of the descriptions you’ve read in novels?
I’d love to hear your examples.
Acknowledgements
Chekhov quote – https://www.nownovel.com/blog/use-chekhovs-gun/
Featured photo by lumix2004 on Pixabay
Thanks, Nola, for your salient wisdom. As a reader, I can be a ‘description skipper’ so my own learning curve as a writer trying to keep it relevant – providing enough but not too much – was quite steep, especially taking care to rein in my poetic inclination to paint pretty word pictures. I’ve sighed and bumped off many a surplus darling in the editing process.
One helpful piece of advice I read adds another dimension to your comments on relevance. The suggestion was to describe an object or an action to represent an idea, a quandary, an emotion, or past experience of the character. For example, one of my characters who is experiencing loss and grief, watches another character water a wilted pot plant. I describe the drooping heart-shaped leaves and spathes of the plant, a gift the character had given to his mother, as a metaphor for his own sorrow/regret at their languishing relationship. I suppose you’d call it transference, allowing description to work at a subtler level.
Thanks for that, Mazzy. Yes, it can certainly be a challenge to kill those darlings. Some of my best scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
And thanks for your comments on transference. It’s great when description can have those different layers. I remember reading one of Anthony Doerr’s short stories in which a family from the American mid-west moved to a beachside town on the east coast. The young daughter had never seen the sea, so she spent lots of hours exploring the beach. However, the mother was depressed because she hadn’t wanted to move. There’s a lot of description of the beach, but he weaves in those other layers you talk about, so that it becomes a metaphor for other things that are happening. It can bring out nuances that really add to the story. It takes a lot of skill to do that well, but it sounds like you’ve nailed it.
Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for sharing this affirming article to teach new writers and remind the not-so-new of the power and pitfalls of descriptive passages.
I remember when my editor took the razor to my first draft and gave me similar advice to what’s contained in this piece.
I’ll never forget the picture she left me with: Take your descriptive passages and imagine them as a mirror removed from your manuscript. Shatter the mirror and insert parts of it into your story as you go. Of course this principle also applies to the ‘back-story’.
If what we write doesn’t add to the story and keep it moving forward, no matter how beautiful the prose or how many hours you took to perfect it, it needs to go. Your readers will thank you.
Thanks for that, Carolyn. I really love that image of the shattered mirror. That’s a good way of describing it. I know I need to remind myself of these lessons from time to time too. I don’t think the learning ever stops, but hopefully we can keep improving. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Great tips here, Nola (and thanks for acknowledging our article on Chekhov’s Gun as a source). Absolutely agree on leaving things to the reader’s imagination. It’s so frustrating when a book hand-holds the reader through picturing every minute detail. There’s a fine balance between describing enough and over-writing.
Hi Jordan – Thanks for that. I enjoyed your article too. There’s always more to learn and I find blogging helps me to remember those tips and hopefully apply them. Thanks for commenting.