When is the description too much

Use this forum to discuss the June 2019 Book of the month, "Cynthia and Dan: Cyber War" by Dorothy May Mercer.
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Hiruni Hansika
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Latest Review: Cynthia and Dan by Dorothy May Mercer

Re: When is the description too much

Post by Hiruni Hansika »

greystreak wrote: 13 Jul 2019, 14:47 I just finished reading Cynthia and Dan: Cyber War by Dorothy Mercer[/i]. I felt the characters were not given enough personality or physical attributes to make them interesting. I felt that the reader could not connect to the story due to the lack of information.
Then we read It’s hard to be a Vampire by Viktoria Faust where the details were so graphically intense that the book, in my opinion, was a disaster to read.
When is a book to graphic for you?
In my opinion, the writer can leave out the detailed sex scenes and foul language. I have been reading Nora Roberts for over 20 years and never have her love scenes been distasteful and the foul language is at a minimum. As J D Robb her In Death series, there is some foul language but it flows with the story. I do not get the feeling she adds foul words to follow the modern trend of writers today.
I felt as if Cynthia and Dan had too much description in unnecessary parts. Look at the part where Cynthia had a bath to relax. Do we need to get all the details about that? Absolutely not. This was only one instance.
I also read Nora Robert's in death series. But I did not like some stories. It was not about the descriptions.
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Post by sayoniwrites »

It would have been helpful to have some descriptions of the characters. It would have cemented the traits/positives/negatives of the characters for the reader and also for the author. Instead, they flapped around without any directions.
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Inks and Quills
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Post by Inks and Quills »

I think it’s all based on personal preference but most mainstream books have a balance. Cynthia and Dan was the opposite extreme, we don’t know literally anything, even eye color!
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Post by Maris Charles M »

Some of the characters had description at some points were it was not necessary. The book somehow had to place it was going to or where it was coming from.
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Post by Maris Charles M »

Tomah wrote: 21 Jul 2019, 09:57 I felt like the book had too much information about odd little things and not enough about what really matters. For example, there's an entire paragraph about Cynthia's car that adds absolutely nothing to her character or the plot. It's not a huge deal, but this sort of thing here and there wear down the reader's patience and take away precious time that could be spent elsewhere. As for foul language and graphic details of sex and violence in general, that's much trickier and should be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
What brilliant comment!! These were exactly my thoughts. Descriptions were mostly made at places where they are not necessary. The detailed sex scene just made me dislike sky so much.
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Post by Moneybag »

I will say the description was way too much, it even made the book boring
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Post by Moneybag »

Storm+ wrote: 14 Jul 2019, 01:59 Having just finished Dorothy Mercer's novel, I agree that the characters were not given much detail. I believe that there is generally a definite balance between giving too much or too little information about a character or setting. Although it can sometimes be difficult to strike that balance, I feel that, if the author must err on one side or the other, they ought to provide too much detail rather than too little. In other words, I would rather read a book that seems "too graphic" than one that provides few details.
I agree with you on this.
Agbata precious
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Post by Agbata precious »

Yes it was too much and was annoying
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Post by sayoniwrites »

The descriptions were either too little or too much. Cynthia's car had more space than the characters' emotions. There was no substantial back story for any character; this made the characters unrelatable.
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Post by Donald Trust »

I must agree the book description was lost and deviated from the main theme of the book. Also the character Cynthia was overhyped.
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Post by third agbata »

I wondered if the author was trying to make the storyline a bit lengthy because the description were too much. It made me skip some lines in the book
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Post by lawisimportant23 »

I did not mind the detailed sex scenes. Given the book is a romance novel, it makes sense that the author would have descriptive sex scenes to add to the thrill of the book.
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Post by Wash William »

The description was too much for characters that weren't well established. I saw it as a way to make the book long.
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Moo Reny
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Post by Moo Reny »

Honestly authors need to know that a book can still be good without sex scenes or foul language
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Post by Chimezie Agbata »

I think when the description is too much is when it begin to go out of context or maybe the author just finds stuff to add just to increase the number of pages.
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