Spent 2 years writing scenes that were 90% description before a workshop in Chicago called me out

I kept reading my work out loud and wondering why people seemed bored. One guy finally said 'your characters are just furniture in a room you described for three pages.' Has anyone else had a moment where you realized you were focused on the wrong thing entirely?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren8061mo ago

That workshop guy did you a favor. Cut all description that doesn't show character action or reaction. Try this trick - read your scene and cross out every adjective. Then see what's left. If the story still makes sense, you had too much fluff. Focus on what characters do and say, not what the walls look like. Your readers will fill in the details themselves.

leohart1mo ago

Damn, that's actually solid advice lol. I used to spend paragraphs describing rooms and clothes and then realize my characters were just standing there doing nothing. Cutting the adjectives thing is brutal but it really works.

grant.margaret1mo ago

My buddy tried this after his writing group told him his fight scenes read like furniture catalogs. He had a whole page about the wallpaper pattern and the type of wood on the floor. Crossed out every adjective and suddenly the scene was just a guy throwing a punch in a room. Took him forever to admit the reader doesn't care if the chair is mahogany or cheap particle board. He rewrote the whole story in a weekend and his beta readers said it was way better. Now he just writes "kitchen" and moves on.