In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* An Ounce of Description
* If You’d Like an Example
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“The art of writing pulp is the art of writing sentences that do more than one thing at a time.” Raymond Chandler
An Ounce of Description
Recently, as part of an enticement for a Kickstarter, a writer offered a special stretch goal that consisted of four short stories by two writers.
As part of the promotion for one of the stories (or maybe of the collection itself, I forget), he mentioned the stories would not be “bogged down” with any of that pesky “description.” He pushed the fact that the stories were all action straight through.
Later he removed that sentence about there being no description, but for me it was too late.
And that was the one reason I didn’t back his Kickstarter. I assumed the main novel for which he developed the Kickstarter would read the same way: all action, zero or little description.
If that’s how you want to write—all action and description-free—that’s fine. I’m not trying to change your mind. I suspect that ship sailed long ago.
But if you’re just starting out or if you still believe you have more to learn about the fiction writing craft, read on.
The comment I get most often
from readers about my own fiction is that they felt as if they were part of the story.
None of the readers knew why they felt that way. None of them mentioned description per se, but every one of them said they were fully, inextricably immersed in the setting and invested in the well-being of the characters.
By extension, when the action DID take off, they were emotionally invested in that too, rooting for the good guys and rooting against the bad guys and hoping for a satisfactory outcome.
That level of interest doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of description.
You don’t have to write a LOT of description. Sometimes I include a lot of description and sometimes I include only a little.
My rule of thumb is if the character notices it, it goes into the story, and if he doesn’t, I don’t.
But without ANY description, your reader is never invited into the story. He can never feel as if he’s inside the story with the characters.
At that point, the reader will be a passive observer at best, as if he’s watching a so-so movie on television. The kind of movie he doesn’t bother to pause when he gets up to get a cold drink from the kitchen.
Of course, a reader can see and hear the description while he’s watching a movie. But he can’t see, hear, smell, taste or feel the setting in a story or novel unless the writer puts it in there.
In the world of short stories or novels without description, at any given moment that same reader might close the story and go find something else to do.
Well-written description in fiction serves two purposes:
1. It grounds the reader by pulling him into the story. Description is what enables the reader to see, hear, smell, taste and feel, physically and emotionally, the setting in any given scene.
2. Even as it pulls the reader deeper into the story, description also provides the reader with a slight “rest” that he doesn’t even realize he’s taking.
Don’t get me wrong.
Action scenes are wonderful, and I absolutely love writing them.
I’ve said many times that I cycle back over action scenes more times than I cycle back over any other scenes, mostly for flow.
But action scenes aren’t the be-all, end-all of even the most intense thriller or suspense novel.
Again, without good description to pull him into the story, the reader’s only a passive observer who isn’t invested in the story and doesn’t really care either way what happens to the characters.
Whatever you might believe, that is never a good thing.
If You’d Like an Example
of both the quote of the day and of good description, it’s not too late to jump into The Darling Members Club, a Stern Talbot PI mystery, on Your Morning Serial.
How’s that for putting myself on the spot and putting my money where my mouth is?
I’m reading it too, post by post, and I’m actually enjoying this one.
If you’re wondering, no, I don’t enjoy all of them. For example, Body Language, which I wrote several years ago and which just finished posting on Your Morning Serial, had a too-sudden and sucky ending. If I’d written it more recently, I’d continue and let the reader see what happened.
To start reading and get caught up with The Darling Members Club, click the links:
Happy reading and writing.
Of Interest
32 Book Awards You Should Know About (Trad & Self-Pub!)
AI Copyright Class Action: Bartz v. Anthropic
New Promotion Class and Extension of Early Bird Discount
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 830
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360
Day 3…… 3323 words. To date…… 7683
Day 4…… 1656 words. To date…… 9339
Fiction for August..………………….. 6089
Fiction for 2025………………………. 532736
Nonfiction for August………………… 15240
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 183640
2025 consumable words…………….. 708762
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29