First, I recommend prepping in detail the descriptions you want to use. This particularly true if you're forgetting crucial information. This can be full boxed text, but it doesn't have to be. A bullet-pointed list of pertinent details is sufficient.
Second, here are a couple rules of thumb you can use in designing your descriptions:
THREE OF FIVE: Think about your five senses. Try to include three of them in each description. Sight is a gimme and a Taste will rarely apply, so that means picking a couple out of Hearing, Smell, and Touch. Remember that you don't actually have to touch something in order to intuit what it might feel like if you did.
TWO COOL DETAILS:Try to include two irrelevant-but-cool details. These are details that aren't necessary for the encounter/room to function, but are still cool. It's the broken cuckoo clock in the corner; the slightly noxious odor with no identifiable source; the graffiti scrawled on the wall; the bio-luminescent fungus; etc.
That's it for now. Master those and you can start looking for more techniques.
Second, here are a couple rules of thumb you can use in designing your descriptions:
THREE OF FIVE: Think about your five senses. Try to include three of them in each description. Sight is a gimme and a Taste will rarely apply, so that means picking a couple out of Hearing, Smell, and Touch. Remember that you don't actually have to touch something in order to intuit what it might feel like if you did.
TWO COOL DETAILS:Try to include two irrelevant-but-cool details. These are details that aren't necessary for the encounter/room to function, but are still cool. It's the broken cuckoo clock in the corner; the slightly noxious odor with no identifiable source; the graffiti scrawled on the wall; the bio-luminescent fungus; etc.
That's it for now. Master those and you can start looking for more techniques.
