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Originally Posted by pyan  This is exactly right, jd - and, alas, is promulgated in our own Critiques section, where at least half the comments and criticisms seem to be on the lines of "Cut out the descriptive bits...they slow down the story. Don't dump information on the reader. Don't use adjectives. Don't use adverbs...." |
And avoid adjectives as if they were the Black Plague.... Yes, I know. While there is a certain amount of wisdom in this view, it is far too overstated. The point is to have a judicious mixture of the two (in most fiction), where it doesn't feel as if it grinds to a screeching halt, or as if it's simply a sketch or notes toward the writing of a story.
Nor is either view off the mark in all instances. Some of Georges Simenon, for instance, is extremely terse and "lightly pencilled in"... yet his work is also often very good. Hemingway himself had a certain cadence and rhythm to his prose, and chose his words very carefully so that they would carry more associations and weight than simply "cutting out all the pretty bits". On the other hand, some writers, such as Joyce or Ballard, went the opposite direction (at least in some works), creating verbal bits of impressionistic (or surrealistic, in the case of Ballard) painting, which evoke emotion and wonder and many other emotions by the sheer power of their imagery and the music of their prose. So either extreme can work... but any prose style must be chosen by the type of tale, the subject matter, the internal logic of the story itself, or the writing is going to be unsuitable and awkward for that tale, leaving it feeling completely flat and amateurish....