Am I being too descriptive in my stories,although I have received many complimentary emails about my descriptions I have also received others that my description are on occassions too much.
Okay I`m not the most elegant writer and my english. spelling and phraseology leaves a lot to be desired, but hey I`m an ex soldier turned truck driver with no fancy degrees just the basic state level of education for the 1950`s and 60`s.
One of my stories called "Control" was slaughtered so much I`ve decided to discontinue it.
Hugs
Jackie
Don't mark all authors
That's just so you can mark yourself, not everyone.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Descriptions.
devonmalc
I have read all your stories and enjoyed each one.Your writing style is unique to you ,do not change it for other people.
Thank you for all your hard work.
devonmalc
Stick with the way you are writing.
I am working on a long novel I've worked on off and on for way too long. One thing I am doing in revising, is adding descriptions, so it isn't just I did this, she did that.
I have paid a lot of attention to many full time professional writers I've read and reread, and they use a lot of good description, not just of the characters, but of places.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Rules of the road
It isn't about being elegant. There are as many writing styles as there are authors. Some use dialog almost exclusively, others bury you with description. I remember a text book that quoted a paragraph from a work by James Joyce (Ulysses, if I recall). There were over seventy footnotes. The text went on to say that Joyce had spent thirteen years writing that particular book and he expected his readers to take the same amount of time to read it. I decided not to.
If you are just writing for yourself, that's not really an issue. Write what you want. If you are writing for others, it might be a good idea to cooperate with them.
As a driver, you had to learn the basic rules of the road. Everyone is expected to follow them, and woe betide those who ignore them. The same can be said for writing.
Now, there are different rule sets. It's different in Manhattan than Tokyo. Rules also change over time. Many of the rules I learned were learned in the 50s and 60s. Even in professionally produced literature today, I am finding that they don't follow the rules that I was taught.
Writers are story tellers. We want to tell our stories. The goal is, then, to do as much as you can to make it easy on the reader to understand and enjoy the story. The trick is to put in everything you need to tell the story and eliminate anything that gets in the way.
Grammar and punctuation are elements of the rules of the road for writing. Now, no one is going to write you a ticket for not following them, but this relates to what I said about Joyce. If you plow your own path, be prepared for fewer to follow you.
If you feel that you're too old to learn new tricks (like this pedantic old biddie), find someone to collaborate with or recruit a couple of proofreaders/editors to assist.
Whatever you do, keep telling your stories. They need to be told.
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Description
As others have said it can get in the way of the plot or enhance it. Dickens used reams of it, nowadays we tend to use less. Personally, I use the minimum, if describing a table cloth, I may mention the colour but little else unless it becomes important to the plot - as it did in one episode of Bike - the plot was about replacing one which had been damaged without the owner knowing.
The other problem, is if you describe things in fine detail, you have to remember them later or you lose continuity - a bit like forgetting a character's name and calling them something else - happens a lot on Fictionmania - and perturbs the reader.
So in short, if it enhances the story use it, if it distracts, unless being used as a device to do so before a plot twist, better to keep it short.
Angharad
Angharad
Descriptions
I deliberately left out detailed descriptions of my heroine Annie, apart from her time as Adam, because I wanted to let the reader choose their own look. With other characters, I have usually added a handle of some kind, a label that acts as a trigger for that mental picture. Only now and again do I write a full description, and that is usually for a specific reason, such as Steph's first sight of her future husband in "Something to Declare"
Now, none of the above is meant as advice, just a summary of what I do and why I do it. The important word is "I"
I write for myself, as I am sure most folk here do. Grammar, spelling, they can both be picked up or delivered by friendly comments, but style: that is a personal thing. If I am writing for myself, then I will stick to my own path, and so should you. Just ask that important question, every time you write a passage: what am I trying to do here?