I disagree somewhat. When I read a story, and it has too little detail, I'm usually put off by it. I'm thinking to myself, "What the hell man, this is your story, your world, paint the damn picture."

There is a very fine line between not enough details, and too many. Trying to find that happy balance is the main objective. Yes, let the reader use their imagination to fill in the gaps, but you need to put stuff in there to get them to see it as you see it. Setting the stage is what I call it.

For Example:

The Acela Club lounge was not like a lounge found in airports, with their fancy dressing and overabundance of hedonism. Instead, it was a simple affair, slightly dated but functional. The hallway from the check-in counter held a row of semi-private desks, with another hallway branching off to club exclusive restrooms. Walking into the main area, a table laid out with individually wrapped snacks sat just off to the side. On the counter next to it was the soda machine, ice dispenser, and hot coffee station. Scattered around the medium size room, was a scattering of sitting areas made up of comfy armchairs and couches. Small tables dotted between them. On the back wall was two arrival and departure screens. Mount on the wall in separate areas was two flat-screen TVs. One was showing Headline News, while the other had a remote near it. It currently was playing NHLTV. The four teens sat there with drinks and snacks already, when Jeremy, Travis, and the two dads walked over.

Just my opinion on it.

31 minutes ago, Myr said:

I can probably get away with "it's magic" more than people writing outside of fantasy though

I agree the "it's magic" or "It's psionics" is enough in most cases in Fantasy and SciFi. Those two genres were made for Infodumps as well.

2 hours ago, BHopper2 said:

I disagree somewhat. When I read a story, and it has too little detail, I'm usually put off by it. I'm thinking to myself, "What the hell man, this is your story, your world, paint the damn picture."

 

There is a very fine line between not enough details, and too many. Trying to find that happy balance is the main objective. Yes, let the reader use their imagination to fill in the gaps, but you need to put stuff in there to get them to see it as you see it. Setting the stage is what I call it.

 

For Example:

The Acela Club lounge was not like a lounge found in airports, with their fancy dressing and overabundance of hedonism. Instead, it was a simple affair, slightly dated but functional. The hallway from the check-in counter held a row of semi-private desks, with another hallway branching off to club exclusive restrooms. Walking into the main area, a table laid out with individually wrapped snacks sat just off to the side. On the counter next to it was the soda machine, ice dispenser, and hot coffee station. Scattered around the medium size room, was a scattering of sitting areas made up of comfy armchairs and couches. Small tables dotted between them. On the back wall was two arrival and departure screens. Mount on the wall in separate areas was two flat-screen TVs. One was showing Headline News, while the other had a remote near it. It currently was playing NHLTV. The four teens sat there with drinks and snacks already, when Jeremy, Travis, and the two dads walked over.

 

Just my opinion on it.

I think there is a difference between describing a place and describing what a character looks like, which is what @Comicality appears to be trying to get across.  I used to read a very popular romance author when I was in college and she had a thing about over-describing what characters looked like sometimes, and I never really liked it.  I don't need to know what a characters nose looks like okay (Yes, she described the shape of her character's noses).  A few common details is fine, like Comsie said.  The only description I gave for a character I wrote was:  Brandon studied him discreetly from his lowered lashes during that brief respite.  Jordan had the classic all American good looks... blond hair, bright blue eyes and a perfect white smile. He was well built--not skinny and lanky like Brandon himself was. He looked every bit like the perfect prep school student and the polar opposite of himself. Probably made straight A's and played football or lacrosse.

That was it, and I felt like it was more than enough.  Jordan is a preppy teenager that Brandon pretty much distrusted at first sight.  But I didn't say how tall, how much he weighed, what shape his nose/mouth was, or how his hair was cut or what clothes he was wearing (because who cares, really)?  The reader can fill that in themselves.  I have given them a starting point.

Having said that, I am not a huge fan of descriptions.  I am more interested in what a character is doing or thinking than what they are wearing, or what the room they are in looks like.  (At one point, someone did point out that I did not describe my characters very well until way too late in a story, so maybe I need to work on that, lol).  

2 hours ago, Backwoods Boy said:

That was today's real experience, by the way, and I'm torn between acknowledging/not embarrassing my adviser  

Always looking forward to reading these.

I tend to avoid sex scenes now, that's for sure.  I've written one and it took me over a day to write it because I felt... I dunno... like an intruder in their personal moment as I'm writing down for the readers what's going on.  After that (purely to save time) I would just segue to what one of my favorite authors would call "a boot scene," and just get back to the main plot.

I agree that it's a lot easier to let the readers fill in the details for themselves.  When it comes to physical descriptions of my characters I usually limit it to hair color, eye color and a general height assessment along with an idea of how they are built.  Brian is still trim just like he was when he was in high school.  Troy has a dad bod going on being a happily married father of three now as opposed to when he was the captain of the swim team.  Andy bulked up during his time in the marine corps and has a goatee now.  Jacob went from teen heartthrob to fat to nearly body builder proportions.  Kyle kept his good looks but lost some of his old body definition and is just a handsome every-man now.  The rest I leave up to readers imagination to fill in because I got better things to do than constantly keep describing how the characters' bodies look.

And, boy, if the comments were any clue, the readers were perfectly fine with that too.

11 minutes ago, Cia said:

 

The same goes for setting. I don't catalog my home as I walk in the door each day, so a character shouldn't either. But as they move along they can share different elements of the home as they move through it. Grabbing a drink out of the fridge, tossing their lunch bag on the counter covered in such and such material that was more of a pain in the ass to maintain than they thought, sinking into the comfy chair that looked god awful ugly but felt like heaven under his aching body after a long day, flicking on the TV that cost more than two weeks wages, etc....

Totally agree.  It's good to point out some relevant things that gives the reader an idea on the kind of lifestyle someone lives (rich, middle class, poor) by giving a modest description of a room or what kind of clothes they're wearing but writing everything down to the minuscule details takes up page and time and energy best served keeping to the narrative. 

Conversely, sometimes you need to point out those kitchen knives in the room because in a few minutes a fight with a vampire is about to break out and they will come in handy. 😜

On 12/8/2018 at 2:27 PM, Backwoods Boy said:

I've seen too many stories on another site that start with a dump of what should be the author's private character attribute spreadsheet.  By the time you're done reading the first two pages, you're overwhelmed with detail, and by the time you get to where a detail is important, it's been forgotten. 

You mean Nifty? I've also noticed that particular pitfall. The so-called "Mirror Catalog", listing everything you might see in the bathroom mirror. Do we really need to know every single detail about a character's physique within the first paragraph? Especially the private bits? I mean, a normal person wouldn't walk up to a total stranger on the subway train and start talking about his junk, would they? Save some mysteries for later, preferably two or three chapters if you must, but don't reveal them too soon. I like a little guess-work in my stories, a gradual revelation. Otherwise, when the clothes actually come off, there aren't any surprises left for readers.

When I'm writing, I do try to keep physical details about my characters to a minimum. A dimple here, a chocolate-hued eye there, tied together with some freckles on the nose and a soft, husky voice that occasionally cracks at the end...that's what makes a good character description. Do I say how tall the character is in inches? Nope. Do I mention that he's heavily inspired by someone I knew in high school? No. Because readers don't need to know that. Of course, there are other details that are more important, such as setting. If I say "We were in a coffee shop. He was a waiter, and I ordered a latte. We kissed behind the Dumpster. The End.", people definitely want to know more! "What did he look like? Was he funny? Was the coffee shop crowded, or sparsely populated?" For locations and settings, I try to be more detailed, to give readers a close idea of what surrounds the characters. After all, the surroundings help set the mood for the situation.