Don’t Be Afraid of Descriptive Writing

This blog may be stating the obvious, and I don’t want to come across as condescending, but I just thought I would impart a piece of advice I gave to a client of mine.

I have found while doing my job as an editor that I have a great responsibility, not just to the authors I work with, but to the work itself. It’s not just about spelling and grammar, it is also about what is best for the story and looking at something from the point of view of the reader. I do know, of course, that authors think about the reader as well, but sometimes things get overlooked, and writers’ confidence or sometimes the lack of it also comes into play.

I edited a wonderful YA novel, and the author is a very talented writer, the story was great, the characters were believable, the pace of the story was spot on, and her writing style was also great, but in the process of editing the story, I found myself wanting to add in a lot more description than the author had applied to her text and through this process, I got the feeling she was holding back and not writing to her full potential. When I asked her about it, she said she was worried that her young readers might get bored if there was too much description in the story.

I explained to my client that actually, the opposite is true, not enough description will bore readers more than too much, and that…