[Writer Post] How Much is Too Much – An Icemeddon Question
Welcome to the Post-Icemeggedon Wednesday Writer Post. It’s been a week, let me tell ya. After not seeing the sun for days on end – and having the gray skies blend with the bright white sleet/ice/snow mixture, it’s nice to see blue skies again. I feel for every event organizer who had to cancel or reschedule events, but after so many We’re All Gonna DIE Winter Weather predictions that haven’t ever come true – this one made up for it.
It was rather nice – for a time – to have an unscheduled three-day weekend. However, there is a distinct difference in choosing to hermit up in your house and read, watch movies, and nap and doing all those things because it would be extremely dangerous to venture forth. We did one venture for one specific thing, and then didn’t do that again. But I was safe and (mostly) warm with my husband and dogs.
But I did read while I was housebound – also did a revision on the play for church in February, and worked a bit on my novel. But there’s a question I have, and hopefully someone’s read down this far to answer it… How much description do you like in a book – not a short story, a novel. Do you want every detail painted for you? Do you want to know what color every curtain is? Or do you just want the story to get on with it and let you paint the scene yourself?
I come from a very minimalist background. I know this. I grew up thinking I wanted to write screenplays (still do, and plays, and comics maybe if I can learn that scripting technique – basically ALL THE THINGS). Screenplays – and plays – are the ultimate of minimalist. You don’t tell your actors how to do their jobs (or the directors), you tell them enough to get the scene down and you get out of the way. As a professor said, if you mention in a script that someone has blue eyes, there better be a good reason for it. And I’ve taken that to my prose writing – but that does tend to make things short…
I ask because what I read this weekend are two very different books – each good on their own merits. One a fast-paced military-ish hard SF. One a thick, what I would call “dense” media tie-in. The density in the media tie-in is important, but there’s a LOT there. Is it a preference thing or is there something else going on? I want opinions on what you guys – readers and other writers – like/feel on the subject. There are no wrong answers – as long as they are reasoned and civil.