The TARDIS Principle for Writing
One thing that I dislike, but that seems to be rampant in the genres of fantasy and science-fiction, is over description. Unless it is necessary, don’t tell me what color the tiles of the castle’s roof is. If it’s Autumn, a short description of the color of the leaves is good, but a long, multi-paragraph description of all sorts of minutia that tells me it is Autumn is overkill. Yes, occasional delving into literary prose is fine. But fantasy and science-fiction authors do way, way, way too much of it at times in my humble opinion.
Those of us who read these sorts of stories do have imaginations after all. Let us use them. We can easily envision what the countryside our heroic knight is traveling through might look like. So, again, unless it is necessary to the story, there is no need to go into great detail. Besides, as I have already learned, great detail can lead to great problems with continuity. The more detail you put in, the more you had better make sure that you remember it later on when you write the next scene where that detail comes up. Read more…
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