When I get anonymous feedback that's useful and I can't reply, I'll start the conversation by putting it into a blog post and seeing if others agree or disagree. Today, Anonymous wrote
"The Master Downstairs would be a fantastic story
if you described the women:- hair colour/length,
eye colour, body shape, height, etc."
It's good useful feedback, and I'll start by saying how much I appreciate it. As a long time reader here, this writing thing is a lot harder than it looks on tv.
One of my favorite all time authors is Deidre over at ASSTR. She only wrote for a short time a long time ago, but wow did she pack a lot in. Her style is pretty minimal, and what I noticed when I reread all of them before putting this down on virtual paper was - she never actually describes the people. I know what I THINK each of them look like, but she never told us. The reader fills in the blanks with people they are reminded of, or wish they were. I'll admit, I decided to do that here as well, though otherwise didn't try to write like her. You'll note that I've tried hard not to give the protagonist a name either.
Having said all of this, I've been going through and fixing problems in the story, and I think adding SOME descriptions would probably help. It will not be a paragraph long fact sheet about each one though.
Thoughts?