A while back I got about pages worth of critique on a first chapter that was two pages long. This writer had heard along a grapevine somewhere that some users had taken a shine to my writing. So they wanted to check it out for themselves and see what all the fuss was about.

What they wrote was the equivalent of a "0 STARS....WOULD GIVE NEGATIVE STARS IF I COULD" review.

And if you write anything, you'll find yourself getting these sorts of comments, too. Maybe not on Wattpad, which is a pretty uplifting community and not well-designed for critiques, but somewhere out there, you're going to encounter someone who wouldn't even use your book for toilet paper.

So what's the point in me telling you this?

Well, this particular writer who told me I didn't have the chops to make it in the industry got so wrapped up in themselves that they sort of forgot the story they were reading and started leaving crazy comments in the margins. Those comments inspired today's chapter.

Eve stood in the kitchen.

Where are we? A kitchen?

She took a soda out of the fridge.

What kind of a soda? What kind of fridge? Are we still in the kitchen?

And they continued to do this throughout the chapter, despite several references to the kitchen and even a description of the kitchen itself right at the very beginning. Apparently there wasn't enough 'kitchen' in the story, among my other heinous crimes to the great house of Literature.

For that particular tale, the most common comment I actually get is a variation of, "I really feel like I'm there!"

Still, I try to use what critiques I get, so I asked myself: Did I use enough description?

What I wanted to talk to you writers today is an interesting topic: how do you know when you have enough description? When is it too much? When is your editor, reviewer, etc, demanding too much?

Below are some questions that may help you figure it out how much is appropriate.

Truth is, there's a difference between what the reader needs to know and what the reader should know.

If the average person of your target audience knows what a "setting/noun/whatever" looks like, you often don't need as much detail to convey it. The more important or unique it is, the more you may need to set up your description.

For example: If I'm writing for young adults, most young adults know what a kitchen is. They've spent a lot of time standing in one while complaining about the lack of food in the house.

The average YA will imagine a sink, fridge, stove, counters, cabinets, maybe a kitchen table. They all might imagine a slightly different kitchen, but they've all got the idea down.

Now what if that kitchen is in a palace? Or a hut in a village on Mars? It's much less likely that your readers will come to a general consensus.

Another example:

Cat. Almost everyone can picture a generic cat. However, if I was talking about a crag cat in Hunted, almost no one would be able to correctly picture it without description of its armored hide, club tail, etc.

Maybe the kitchen sets the mood for a horror story. Think about what would be noticed: innocent things that take on a more ominous tone, like the knife block or the softly swinging lower cabinet door Now picture the kitchen in a romantic comedy involving a baker. Do we need the knife block? We might be focusing on the personality of the kitchen's owner instead of the scene. It's a mess like she is. So when you're describing the kitchen, you frame it in the protagonist's personality instead.

Let's say we have a side character. A ticket attendant at a country fair. They're only present for one chapter. What do you describe? Well, what's important about them? The attendant who is a murder suspect should have a different focus then the attendant who just comments that the protag is a lucky lady to have such a handsome date.

Heck, if we have a chase scene and your character just runs through a palace kitchen to escape outside, we don't need the same level of detail that Jurassic Park does when the kids are hiding from the raptors.

Lots of readers remember unique details. Lots of people naturally observe unique details and they fill in the rest. You don't need many. Just a few will do.

Take the baker's kitchen. In her rundown apartment above her struggling bakery, Melanie's kitchen is always filled with the smell of warm chocolate...from baking chips melting beside a purring radiator. Later, her well-off sister runs her finger over the powdery sheen of the countertop and asks Mel if she's finally cooked up a scheme to pay for a maid.

We still know it's a kitchen. We still know it's a mess, but now we know what make it Mel's kitchen.

Build off what the average reader should know. In Mel's case, the color and style of the countertop doesn't matter. I'm focusing on the fact that she's messy and broke and her sister isn't. In this case, it's not the description of a counter that matters; readers can picture that. When your story is made into a movie, you can tell the director you always thought it was blue laminate. What matters in the writing here is what's on the counter and how that looks.

Obviously what does/doesn't matter changes with every scene and situation. There are times you want the color, other times you want the flour, and some where you want both. A lot depends on the writing and what you're accomplishing in the scene.

Sometimes, more detail is nice but there's no goshdarn place to put it.

I do this all the time. I learn all kinds of stuff for my stories and I can't use all of it because there's no where for it in the story. This can be the worst kind of description to realize, because you know it doesn't really belong but you want it in there.

Slowing a scene can be crucial in using pace smartly, but you do want to try and make sure that you're writing a story where you aren't interrupting the natural flow.

There are many reasons why we include details. Now think about your reasons for this description. It can be as simple as considering whether or not to eliminate or include an extra adjective or as big as adding an entire scene.

When I edit, one of the things I always look for are left/right. In my first drafts I tend to be too specific. I realize that a lot of those details don't really matter and sometimes get confusing.

In Dark Side, a cat bites someone's right thumb. The character makes a note of it, after which the physical thumb injury has no further impact on the story (what mattered in that scene was the bite/showing that the cat disliked him). I killed 'right' in my edits because the detail wasn't needed. Knowing which hand really doesn't help that particular scene or future scenes.

Meanwhile, in Run Cold, the protagonist is shot in her shoulder. She has surgery and scars and still feels pain there in the next book. In her case, side matters.

Yes, you know what it says. But if you're editing, you should still be reading it with everything else. If you find yourself going, "okay, that's the description of the house/Bob/the moon/whatever" and you skim down to the next paragraph, there's a good chance some of your readers will do the same. You are your own biggest fan after all. If even you, you wonderful author you, don't want to sit through the description, why should your readers?

Note: if this is your final round of edits and you're just breezing through, or you've already spent five hours perfecting that spot, it's okay to skip.

Let's say that the kind of soda in the fridge doesn't matter. It doesn't really impact the story. But what if we're at the start of a story and we're trying to create a specific time frame? It's possible we want the kid to reach inside the fridge and grab him and his friends some Hi-C Ecto Coolers.

This goes back to asking what's unusual and important to your story.

Using the above questions, you should be able to determine the answer to this question.

Figure out who your narrator is, whether you are in third or first person. First person often has a few extra limitations here for obvious reasons. Your sixteen year old protag might not plausibly know the detail you want to include. Think about about what your narrator would focus on and want to describe. What are they capable of describing?

Sure, that creepy statue might be cool for mood, but if your protag is running for her life, is she really going to notice it for three sentences?

Next, think about your audience. Is the detail in question something your narrator would want to show your general audience? Does your general audience care?

Description doesn't have to be its own paragraph! You don't need to stop the story to describe! When you integrate description throughout your scene/chapter/story, you can paint a strong picture!