Those who write
picture book texts know that descriptive passages are best left out for the
art. But what about novels for middle grade readers? They are (usually) not
illustrated. Surely, there’s room for descriptive passages telling of landscapes,
indoor settings and physical details of characters.
Time was, there
were ample spaces in the narration for such. Something happened to change this.
Middle Grade books written today are better served keeping descriptions to a
minimum.
In fact, the
how-to mavens insist that these passages are too “telly," an anathema to the show-don’t-tell principle of strong
writing.
Descriptions also
slow the action, and if there’s anything more verboten, it’s slow-moving plot.
Then, there’s the
matter of descriptions tending to quiet the tone, and “too quiet” is another
no-no.
But-but-but you
say. How is a setting to come alive? How would a character be more than their
dialogue words? Does the young reader ever gets to smell the roses?
It isn’t that
novels for young readers are to be devoid of all description, say the mavens.
Just be economical. Have setting or physical characteristics be inferred by
actions of dialogue. By all means, insert a sentence here and there pertaining
to a descriptive detail. What a writer should avoid is long, languid, lulling
descriptions we all read if we read the classic books of yore. La-di-da and all
that.
It’s a reminder
that we’re competing for shorter attention spans conditioned by video games and
motion pictures.
I know this is
solid advice, but it makes me sad. Some of the best writing I’ve encountered in
my life bore the vestments of detailed descriptions that went on for pages. But
the world of literary commerce has moved on.
Some months back, I
served as a beta reader to a talented writing friend’s middle grade story,
whose descriptive paragraphs were beautifully done. In my humble opinion, her
strongest writing lay in those paragraphs. It hurt to suggest she might consider
cutting them out or changing the way the settings materialized on the page. But
nineteenth-century writing does not work well in the twenty-first century.
A new era requires
new skills. No use fuming or crying about it.
6 comments:
I generally don't write anything longer than a PB, so I obviously don't deal with long descriptive passages. But your advice sounds solid for those who do write those longer mss.
Writing MG description is difficult for me! So writing novel-in-verse was a great solution!
I'm one of those people who skim over descriptions--I don't need a lot of detail, just enough to ground me in your story world. I've always preferred my own imagination much more because it supplies what I need. That said, my latest PB, Little Thief, came out of a writing exercise for description but as my instructor pointed out, I described an event instead of just a place. It was a fine piece of writing--one of my favorite exercises and actually I use it whenever I feel blocked. I just practice writing what's in front of me--right now, two naughty kitties who are blocking my view of the screen as I type :)
Vijaya, you and me-- both. (For using little description and for having kitties obstruct the screen :D)
My own writing style is naturally terse. I tend to omit description. In fact, I've been asked to add it by editors :0
But as a reader, I do enjoy strong descriptive writing.
The current emphasis on shorter descriptions saddens me, too. Well, the idea of the short attention spans is what saddens me. Yet, as a reader, I skip over long, rambling descriptions, too, although when a description is written in a way that makes it seem important to the character or plot, my attention is riveted. So that's probably one aspect of good writing: making the description highlight character or advance the story.
When I think about it even more, though, books that I return to are those that had a certain way of "telling." Sometimes the sheer pleasure of reading a memorable line is enough to make me reread a book.
I normally skip over long descriptive passages in novels. I have trouble writing them, too. But I've noticed that in well written novels some description can enhance mood or even voice (when seen through the POV character's eyes).
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