Sorry in advance if this has been bandied about already, I didn't find a recent thread.
I have a question regarding folks' opinions on the level of detail that you prefer/works in your opinion, or not/think is necessary/feel free to express whatever opinion you like when describing certain scenes. Instead of bumbling through an explanation, let me give you some examples:
First example. Scene starts with MC getting to work:
The elevator opened on the ninth floor. Laura limped out, swiped her card, and opened the door to a dark floor. She flipped on the lights and headed to her desk, dropped her stuff down then pulled her laptop out of her bag. She clicked it into the docking station and gingerly made her way down the hallway to the break room to put her lunch in the fridge. The laptop was still booting up when she returned. Every time they rolled out updates it got slower and slower. She turned on the radio and listened to the Friday morning news while she watched her desktop icons appear one by one.
This is the first time the MC's workplace and her morning routine is introduced (if that makes any difference). I like to picture what is happening in my head and describe what I see, but at what point do the 'details' become boring/too much as perhaps in the example above, and at what point does the lack of detail make the reader go huh, as perhaps in the example below?
Laura sighed. Might as well get Janice out of the way and concentrate on her real work. She headed back out to the lobby and pushed the up button on the elevator. It was way too early to take the stairs and besides, her ankle was still throbbing from her self-induced fright two nights ago. She got in the elevator and pushed ten.
In this paragraph, in particular the last sentence, we have the MC getting on an elevator (yeah, I know you can read
), but is it necessary to say 'The doors opened, she got in the elevator and pushed ten.' Would the reader say, I know she pushed the button but when did it open?
I guess my question to anyone who'd like to answer is, when getting a character from point A to point B, how much is too much and how much is not enough? I know that the question is very high level, and can probably be qualified a hundred ways or more, but any and all observations/comments/opinions are welcome.
Thanks in advance!
I have a question regarding folks' opinions on the level of detail that you prefer/works in your opinion, or not/think is necessary/feel free to express whatever opinion you like when describing certain scenes. Instead of bumbling through an explanation, let me give you some examples:
First example. Scene starts with MC getting to work:
The elevator opened on the ninth floor. Laura limped out, swiped her card, and opened the door to a dark floor. She flipped on the lights and headed to her desk, dropped her stuff down then pulled her laptop out of her bag. She clicked it into the docking station and gingerly made her way down the hallway to the break room to put her lunch in the fridge. The laptop was still booting up when she returned. Every time they rolled out updates it got slower and slower. She turned on the radio and listened to the Friday morning news while she watched her desktop icons appear one by one.
This is the first time the MC's workplace and her morning routine is introduced (if that makes any difference). I like to picture what is happening in my head and describe what I see, but at what point do the 'details' become boring/too much as perhaps in the example above, and at what point does the lack of detail make the reader go huh, as perhaps in the example below?
Laura sighed. Might as well get Janice out of the way and concentrate on her real work. She headed back out to the lobby and pushed the up button on the elevator. It was way too early to take the stairs and besides, her ankle was still throbbing from her self-induced fright two nights ago. She got in the elevator and pushed ten.
In this paragraph, in particular the last sentence, we have the MC getting on an elevator (yeah, I know you can read
), but is it necessary to say 'The doors opened, she got in the elevator and pushed ten.' Would the reader say, I know she pushed the button but when did it open?I guess my question to anyone who'd like to answer is, when getting a character from point A to point B, how much is too much and how much is not enough? I know that the question is very high level, and can probably be qualified a hundred ways or more, but any and all observations/comments/opinions are welcome.
Thanks in advance!
My stumbling block is the times when it is necessary and folks opinions on the best way to get there without boring the reader.