Do you prefer more detail, or less detail when it comes to the environment in a story.

I know some people prefer the whole thing filled in for them to imagine, but I also know there are some readers I've met who prefer just the basic outline of the environment, and like to fill the rest in themselves. Which category do you fall in?

Just enough details to know what's going on. No need to describe the environment for paragraphs only to go "but that wasn't important since MC is going somewhere else". Unless you're writing meta narrative and and want to annoy the readers into commenting.

More details... Because.. nowadays moderate details count as more details

Worthy39 said:

I know some people prefer the whole thing filled in for them to imagine, but I also know there are some readers I've met who prefer just the basic outline of the environment, and like to fill the rest in themselves. Which category do you fall in?

Click to expand...

Somewhere In-between

Well, it also depends on the pacing of your scene. A fight is less likely to require that detailed a description of the scenery than a stroll by the forest.

Depends. I treat the environment as a character. If I don’t need it, I leave it out. If it serves the plot or the narrative, I will go at length to write about it.

More detail is good. The problem most make with this advice however is i how it is incorporated. The info should expanse over time with plot and dialogue in a balanced manner, not to be info dumped in one big bracket. That's the hard part.

People really forgetting that imagination is supposed to carry.

Mild details, overcrowding with words would only make the scene bland unless you can polish the flow

It fully depends on the writer

I believe that the setting only exists insofar as it's relevant to the story. If the setting matters (e.g. is where most of the story takes place, sets the tone, or is otherwise interesting), then I'd be interested to know more about it. If it doesn't matter, then I don't need to hear about it.

Of course this also depends on whether or not the writer's good at writing (or not writing) setting descriptions

I've been having this same problem with detail or not having detail in the right places.

I enjoy a balance. One where I can tell what am I meant to imagine, but at the same time allows me to fill in the details.

The environment isn't just a setting; it's the atmosphere of a scene. By using the environment as atmosphere, you can manipulate the reader's mood regarding the situation the characters are facing in a scene. So, they might immerse themselves in the scene. For example,

Corpses, blood, broken swords, and the scorching sunlight on a battlefield depict the brutal and tragic circumstances of war.

Trash, rats, sewage, and dim lighting in an alleyway depict a gloomy and squalid situation.

The sound of crickets, a gentle breeze, moonlight, and ripples on the lake's surface convey silence and a tendency toward melancholy.

The texture (detail) of your environment will determine how readers perceive the atmosphere of a scene. Treat the environment as an additional character involved in a scene. It will make your scene feel more alive.

The question shouldn't be how detailed or undetailed the environment is, but how detail of the environment can build atmosphere within a scene to influence the reader's mood?

General details should be "front-loaded" and only details important to the scene mentioned later.

One author who did this well at first but lost it over time (likely due to the brain illness that eventually killed him) was Robert Jordan in the Wheel of Time series - you could almost taste and hear the setting, and knew (better than the casting director at Amazon in many cases) generally what his characters looked like... In the first two books, I was in awe of his ability to describe scenes and wished I could do that... but by the third book I was wishing he had my limited ability to paint the picture, so to speak, so that it wouldn't take up so much of the text, especially when he'd already detailed some sections in depth.