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Thoughtful Thursday – How Much Description – July 24, 2014
Reading Is Fun Again created Thoughtful Thursday. Each week, she posts a new bookish thought that she discusses.
Everyone is welcome to join.
July 24: How descriptive action sequences and/or romantic situations are usually depends on the author. Some authors spend several pages describing an action or romantic scene while others describe this situations in a few paragraphs or less. What is your preference?
I’m really not a fan of action sequences. I tend to skim battle scenes and the like while mumbling to myself, “fighting, fighting, fighting . . . still fighting, okay. Moving on.” Unless the romantic scene is obviously integral to the plot, I tend to feel the same way about love scenes (“sexy time, sexy time, Oi, more sexy time, aaaand finally more plot“). I guess my preference is most obvious in books-turned-into-movies (if you’ve both read and seen the Narnia works you know what I’m talking about), but ultimately I think it’s easy to convey an heroic warrior or a steamy couple without offering a chapter’s worth of details. I’d rather use my imagination for those bits & let the author fill in the plot points I can’t guess.
Be sure to check out the other posts on this topic at Reading Is Fun Again.
4 Comments
by Brenda @DailyMayo
I agree! I don’t think action scenes or romantic scenes require a play-by-play of every element.
by Reviews from a Bookworm
Nice answer. I don’t want them to be too long or too short. The author needs to find the perfect balance, which can be pretty hard a lot of the time. I don’t lie the scenes to feel dragged out and unnecessarily long. Here’s my answer.
by Danielle
I feel exactly the same way about this. Honestly, I’m so sick of lovey scenes. I feel like they’re all the same! “My heart beats loudly. We breathe each other in. I gasp as he kisses me.” Bleh.
by TheEveryFreeChanceReader
Yeah, those scenes are too much. They are usually skim scenes for me.