How much detail is too much detail?

I want just enough detail so I can picture something in my head. Yet, I still want the option to personalize the scene I'm reading with my own images. I can't stand it when authors go on and on for paragraphs talking about the specific way the grass moves when a wind blows (for example).

Tell me about it! I was reading the Naked Tourist ,an awful book, and the stupid author included all of his bodily function over a year. I didn't need to know any of that but also have a habit of having to finish a book once I started it! He was a trashy writer but on the best sellers list of NY times! The same topic stylishly done would have been very different. For example, if he was talking about the plight of the homeless kids in Java and their sad living conditions but instead he described getting a colonic cleansing for himself without leaving anything out! I know I am repeating it here ... and I'm sorry but I agree! They say better out than in :) There is a point where TMF is really a problem. I am not happy with the fact that there is no limits on how far the authors and the producers go these days... Because when there is no social limits of what is acceptable or not, nothing seems to be really funny or shocking anymore. Then again since there isn't a better alternative or a solution for it out there I guess we should just accept it! And enjoy what we read. Because I will never forget this piece ..................................of book! :)

Detail could be overdone if it either doesn't help the plot along or has nothing to do with it, or that it doesn't help in establishing characters's traits the reader needs to know. Sometimes though, an author who is talented enough can get away with too much detail and still not ruin anything. So it really depends (on if the detail is interesting enough to read).

For me, if your describing a scene of something, up to about half a page is enough detail. any more than that and I tend to just skip the whole all together because it make me get a bit bored after a while. I really prefer the books that are right in the middle in terms of detail, like where they give the reader some and then leave some details for the reader to imagine.

For example, this.

She had long, golden, slick, smooth hair that just reached the very tip of her shoulders. Her eyes were a very enchanting green with a ring of onyx-grey surrounding the darkness of her pupil. Her lips were a moist, lucious, and almost too irresistable shade of ruby, and her complexion was almost to pure and clean to touch. She was also very pale, only a shade away from pure white- and a dash of freckles ran up her thin nose.

It's too much.

Get it, over desribing can be good in some cases, but when it comes to reading a book, you don't want THAT much. You want just enough to form the picture in the persons mind, but you can't put so much that the person begins to realize that they're reading words, instead of experiencing them.

Hope this helped a bit.

I need s@hm's book also. I got a violation today because I apparently didn't understand the question. You can't win for losing some days but hey YA's the most fun I get daily so I'm just going to continue to be confused and desire the absurd! Who ever said the fun is in the details was wrong it seems. Who knew?

maybe a 2-5 sentences can be fine to give me a feel of what u are saying about, but dont be like charles dickens (who wrote GREAT EXPECTATIONS) and he put paragraphs to describe small things and then it gets really boring and seems to be a sluggish book, not an exciting one

but if u are describing a character, then u can use as much as a whole paragraph

when they describe exactly everything for ex. i went down the dirt road it was a brownish reddish dirt it had two bugs running around in it they were going about pretty fast and they seemed like male and female but one had a tail like thing that was wiggling really fast

for Me enough detail is when i feel like im there and Im experiencing It or its so deep that i start crying=]

lord of the rings. wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much detail.