Q U E S T I O N

Is there a specific amount of sentences it should take to describe something? For example, I can describe my character getting into their car in 30 sentences, or just 3. What should I take into account when deciding how long to describe something for? I often feel I lack description in my stories due to the fact that I find the descriptions are either unnecessary or boring, and then delete them.

M Y    A N S W E R

My all-time favorite rule of thumb for writing is: if something is boring me while I'm writing it, it's going to bore the reader, too. So you know what I do?

from http://doctorwho.tumblr.com/post/36611353741/inothernews-its-cybermen-monday

Seriously, though, screw it. Life's too short. If writing a description is boring you, or you think it's boring as heck every single time you reread it (and not just when you're feeling down on yourself), then get rid of it. If that makes your story really bare bones, you know what? That's okay. Plenty of great writers specialized in being bare bones, like Ernest fricking Hemingway. Or Elmore Leonard. For those of you who love Nora Roberts, La Nora is also quite minimalist in her writing--she writes page upon page of dialogue with very little else, but that's enough to carry the story and engage her millions of fans. So this writing and deleting thing you're doing might just be you developing your own writing voice and style, and that's totally cool and awesome.

Now, that said, if you have readers consistently pointing to the same places in your story and saying, "what the heck is happening here? I can't follow it" or "I can't picture this, what does it look like?" then you might want to take a step back and think about how you can most effectively convey what is in your head into your reader's head. Let's take your car example. The vast majority of people have seen cars, have seen people, and have seen people get in and out of cars. So you don't need to break it down all that much--readers can fill in a lot of details themselves. Your job here is to give them the flavor and then let them imagine the rest on their own. In other words, you don't have to describe everything in painful detail. Give them the details that really excite you.

So, what's interesting to you about your character, the car, or how the character gets into the car? Is your character a bad boy who slouches around, taking long drags off his cigarette and scowling? If that's interesting to you, add it in, like seasoning over a lovely meal. Now what about the car--is it a rusty old junker, a sleek sports car, the bad boy's mom's minivan? The car he drives, like anything else he owns, probably says a little bit about who your character is, what he likes, how much money he has, where he comes from, etc, but again, not all of those details will necessarily be relevant every scene, or to the book at all. The car you pick for him might also be relevant to your plot--if it's going to break down in a later scene, for instance, you might mention in an earlier description that it's going a little haywire.

As for how your bad boy gets into and out of the car, this is usually the sort of relatively mundane activity you can gloss over if you to, so you can move onto something else. It's totally okay to be brief: "he got into the car and drove away." or even: "he left." But this is also an opportunity to highlight an interesting aspect of your story if you want to. Suppose your bad boy adores his old junker, which symbolizes freedom to him, and he opens and closes the old doors with reverence and care. Or suppose he hates his old junker and always give the door a hard kick as soon as he gets out.

Now imagine he's giving the heroine a ride home. Does he open the door for her? Does he smirk in silence while she does opens it herself? Descriptions of how your characters interact with each other and their world help propel your plot forward, so you'll want to focus on those details that matter most for the story you're telling.

"But London," you might be saying, "what if I'm writing a story set in a fantasy world or a very unusual place? How many descriptions do I need then?" In that case, you might need to have more descriptions, and more detailed descriptions, than you would for a regular contemporary story. If your bad boy is a Martian and drives a spaceship, well, then most readers will need a little more help figuring out what that looks like. But again, you don't need to list the number of rockets it has (unless you're writing hard sci-fi and you totally love geeking out on that stuff, in which case, have at it :D ). Just pick a handful of interesting things about your world and tell us about those.

And in case this seems like way too much to think about, don't worry about it too much while you're rough drafting. Try to have fun, and just think about good stuff to include--stuff you can't wait to write down. When you go back and edit, think about whether your descriptions are pulling their weight by helping to advance the story in some way, by creating mood or giving insights into a character or setting up the plot. If your readers tell you there's too much or too little description somewhere, take a second look at those areas in particular and see if you agree. But keep in mind, the final decision is up to you. You are the decider! :-)