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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chain Lightning" data-source="post: 2414174" data-attributes="member: 6791">I agree. I dislike authors that over-describe things. However, I also dislike those that don't describe enough. Like Glen Cook. I think I was like third into the book before I found out on of the magic-user brothers was black. You gotta at least give some basic info. Without that, the reader can't paint the visuals in his/her mind.Speaking of visuals. Let me mention a minor annoyance of mine. Some authors show their weakness at artistic design. Of course they're weak in this area, they've concentrated on writing not art design. But it shows up and ruins my experience from time to time. This basically happens when the author is describing what someone is wearing. Because the author has no artistic sense, sometimes he or she will describe a really silly looking outfit.  And since I'm an artist, I always have a direct translation of what is described and I'm sitting there going, " oh geez...that's weird ..."Example: some awesome cool warrior walks in the room and he is described like this:  "....was wearing green hose. Around his waist was a worn leather belt with a leaf design on it. Each leaf was painted red. His brocaded shirt was purple with green flying swans over the chest. As he pulled back the hood on his yellow cloak, his long hair fell upon his shoulders. Bob noticed a large eagle feather tied at the end of a long braid that was tucked behind his left ear.  The color of the feather matched the beads that were tied around his right ankle."When I read stuff like this I totally get taken out of the moment and can no longer take the character seriously. Please oh please....if you're an author....don't do this. Have a friend draw you a quick sketch or something. Design it first on scratch piece of paper. Even if you're not an artist, please plan it first. Sweet jeebus, if I had a nickle for every time I ran into a description like this......Its fine if the character is suppose to be a fool, but c'mon....not on a serious character.Other than that, I agree with Takyris. Plus I tend to not like "inside joke" type writing. When I usually read it, it makes me feel like I've walked into some gaming store (that I'm not a regular of) and I'm forced to stand in the corner and listen to the inside jokes of all the players of the D&D session going on in the store. However, if you're kinda doing the "Galaxy Quest" style story with D&D, then that's cool.</blockquote>

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