Description can either be a great thing or a horrible thing. It really depends on what you use it for. I usually see authors use description as filler. Something to fill up their chapter or book to make it seem a little longer. This is definitely something you should try to avoid doing. Let me give an example of what you don't want to do.
Bad Example: The mansion was enormous. It towered over everything else. Mary felt like an ant compared to the building. There were vines and moss growing over some parts. The windows reflected the sunlight beautifully and the stone walls also seemed to glow. The door way was wide and tall. There were two doors made of fine, dark wood. They were polished and stained perfectly. The gold ornaments around the doors shun in the soft sunlight. Mary looked at the doorknob. It was made of solid gold with a large ruby protruding out slightly from the front of the knob. It looked delicate and strong at the same time.
What you just read is what I like to call "word diarrhea". It's just a bunch of words that have vague meaning that the author threw in to fill up the chapter. Think about some books you've read that have large amounts of description in them. They might have phrases like "his hair feel into his eyes helplessly" or "I looked into his eyes and I knew immediately he was lying". These phrases mean essentially nothing because nobody knows what "helpless hair" looks like, and nobody looks into someone's eyes and immediately knows that their lying. Most people aren't detectives, okay.
Description should be used for a purpose. Not a purpose that serves you, a purpose that serves the audience. It should tell the audience something that the author knows. An author knows how their characters look, they know what the setting looks and sounds like, but the audience doesn't. Description should be used to tell your readers something that they don't know. It doesn't need to be drawn out or filled with high vocabulary words. Simply describe what you need to describe then move on with the story. Let me give you a example of good description now.
Good Example: Kevin had to back up to get a good look at the man. He had black wavy hair and broad eyebrows which emphasized his furious expression. Kevin couldn't even compare to the man in hight, which made the guy look all the more threatening.
Notice how this example is a lot shorter than the previous example. It is short and to the point. From the information given in this example the audience knows that the man Kevin is looking at has black wavy hair, broad eyebrows, and is tall and threatening. The readers can also deduce that Kevin is probably short, since he had to back up to get a good look at the man. We conveyed a lot of information through a small amount of words and description, which is exactly what we, and the readers want. The readers can understand what your saying because you aren't talking in riddles like the previous example.
I hope this advice was helpful to some people. I may be doing a future chapter about description in The Book Club soon, so if you're interested in seeing what else I have to say go ahead and check out The Book Club.
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