Do you write too much description in your fiction? While adding description can help give your reader a clearer picture of the events and everything in the particular scenes, it’s important not to add too much description. In this article, we’ll look at the drawbacks of adding too much description in your work.
1. It can get boring for the reader
When you are sitting down reading a book, the description is obviously important. You want to be able to picture and imagine the world that you are reading about. However, adding too much description can make things extremely boring. If you are reading a book and you have three pages of description before you even meet the first character, you aren't going to stick around to find out the plot of the book.
2. It makes the chapter longer than it needs to be
Of course, having long chapters is never a bad thing when you are writing a book. It can be a bad thing when the chapter is just filled with details that aren't necessarily needed. If you want to describe every inch of the castle, try minimizing it to detailing only the parts of the castle that you are going to be visiting in this chapter. Save the other details for later.
3. Readers will often forget important pieces of information when given too much to keep up with
When you add all the detailing at once, readers will not know which parts they should be paying attention to. You need to keep everything on topic and only add the things that are necessary when you are trying to build the scene. If your chapter seems a little short without all of that information, try to rewrite it from a different perspective and use words that will bring out more conversation so you don't have a quick chat and end chapter.
4. If it isn't related to the plot, it may confuse the reader
If you mention something in the description of your book, people are going to try their best to remember it. It was included in the book, which means that it is obviously an important piece to the story. But if it isn't, then the reader will finish the book with that knowledge and question why it was even added to the story in the first place.
5. It slows your own writing process because you are too focused on the details and not the story
Not only will too much description slow the reader down, but it will also slow you, as the writer, down. When you spend too much time thinking about the descriptions and small details in your book, you spend less time working on the characters and the plot points that the book is actually about. This is why a lot of people either never publish a book, or publish a book with characters that could be more likable. They spent too much time on the small details.
6. You won't be able to go back and change anything once it is written out
Not only will your writing be slowed down, but you will look at every detail over and over to make sure that you are okay with it being a permanent mark in your fictional world. If you mention that a character has blue eyes, that cannot be changed. This is a bit of a commitment. However, if you keep the details vague and only include what you need to, then you can worry about world-building at the end of the story.
7. The readers will think too much about the descriptions and less about the story
When you fill your readers up with descriptions and details that aren't relevant, they aren't going to have any more memory space for the plots and storyline. If this is a mystery novel, you want to keep things vague so the readers can easily keep up.
