Probably a scene that you do need to describe in some detail
Come to think of it, I’ve never read a story set in a nudist colony. But the point here, for budding writers, is to avoid burdening your readers with details that they don’t need–like what all the characters are wearing.
The trickiest part of writing fiction is description. If you don’t have enough, the scene never takes shape in the reader’s mind. If you provide too much, the reader will get bored and impatient.
J.R.R. Tolkien was great at telling you just enough to make the scene he was describing come alive. No one ever did a better job of harnessing the reader’s own imagination. That’s why illustrations of The Lord of the Rings don’t work for me–they never match what I’ve already imagined.
Speaking of nudist colonies, years ago, my family owned a cattle ranch, and one of the neighbors down the road (couple, actually) belonged to a nudist colony, and invited us to join them NO THANK YOU!
Somehow I just don’t see you in a nudist colony. As for me, no thanks!
Absolutely, never. I am even embarrassed by the way people “dress” on the streets these days.
To say nothing of mosquitoes and black flies…
I know another writer who tells just enough to make the scene come alive – he has written a series of books called “Bell Mountain.” I encourage people to give it a read.
Amen! One of the best things about Lee’s writing is that the descriptions are adequate to describe the characters and settings, but never so detailed as to belabor the descriptions.