To describe or not to describe: an author’s question

Originally posted on Creative Writing with the Crimson League:

Description in creative writing is a tricky concept. In a lot of ways, I feel that it is becoming a lost art: at least, I feel that in general we care less about it now, and pay less attention to it, than people used to do.

Though this is certainly debatable, I’d say the conquering medium of our time–the art of our time–is  cinema, and that has affected what people look for in a book and how they read a story.

Compared to, say, the Victorians, we have lost the art of physical description to to some degree–description of backgrounds, of objects, of setting. There are, of course, books written today with wonderful and beautiful descriptions. I’m not denying that.

But read anything by Dickens, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Now, description is largely an issue of stylistic choice–what to tell and how much to tell. Less description does…

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