DESCRIPTIVE WRITING - WHEN IS IT TOO MUCH?

[Sybil]

Write as much you want as long as its interesting. Too little can be too much too if it's boreing.

[Liz]

Well take Dickens for example, excellent writer. He got paid by the word. It shows. I don't need to know a whole page on how you got the name Pip...

[Joel]

I believe it is too much when the reader notices it. In The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett spent a full paragraph describing an ash tray that had nothing to do with the story, but it flowed so smoothly as to be unnoticeable.

[Ellen]

The Harry Potter books--and too much fluff and padding. After wading through a few I stuck to the movies.

[A.R.]

Descriptive writing, to me is like dialog. If it is natural and conveys with clarity what the author is trying to communicate it is not overdone. For a reader, it is done right if it does not draw attention to itself. That is to say, it should not break the illusion that what one is only reading is actually happening. The good writer makes me forget that he's the wizard behind the curtain. His descriptions make me "live" the scene. Descriptive words are the spice, so they can easily be overused. Like spices, the strong (make that unusual ones) can be all one tastes.
Perhaps I am not the usual reader. When I enjoy a book (or a series,like Dune), there is never too much description. I hate it when the story finally ends.
I suppose it's all a matter of taste.

[Joel]

I once did a blog post comparing Hemmingway and Faulkner. Faulkner's style is very descriptive with beautiful flowing sentences while Hemmingway's style has been described as a complete absence of style. The vast majority of writers today copy the style of Hemmingway.