Just to set the scene, I'm drinking Letterbox green tea from a mug someone gave me this last Christmas. I've reheated the tea in our ancient microwave, 66 seconds on high, and it's the perfect temperature. Sixty-six is my favorite number, and it's easy to punch in on the old microwave, whose leds haven't worked in decades. The mug itself features four animals marching around the outside. A polar bear leads the way. He, as do all these animals, walks upright. He's carrying a decorated Christmas tree in one hand and a sack labeled Fred's Fish Shop in the other. Trailing the bear is the cat, who is holding a candy cane as well as a bag from Fred's Fish Shop. Next comes the mouse, who is the only character carrying but one thing, in this case a smallish shopping bag with Cheese Shop printed on the side. Bringing up the rear is the dog, also carrying a decorated Christmas tree. His bag says Bob's Bone Shop, and poking up from the bag are two large white bones. The background is red, and a few white circular snowflakes fall. I left out an important part of the scene, one which I only noticed just now, which shows you how much attention I pay to theses things. You remember the polar bear and the cat each carry a sack from Fred's Fish Shop. Between the bear and the cat stands a fish. He's handing a pair of shears to another fish who is peaking from the cat's bag. We can see now that the first fish has cut away the rear of the bear's bag and escaped.
Do you remember those games you'd play at early grade school birthday parties in which everyone would look at a large tray upon which sat various items? The children look at the tray for about a minute, then the tray would be taken away, and all the kids would have to write down the items on the tray. I was really good at that sort of game. Often I could remember all the items.
In the SOL forum today I noticed a post having to do with descriptions. The post started out being about measurements, you know, ample breasts, perky breasts, cupcake breasts, but gradually evolved into a discussion about descriptions beyond breasts. I often find myself losing focus when reading a long descriptive passage in a story. And even if I pay attention, even if I can remember most of the elements in the description, I don't really form a picture. Likely many readers do form pictures. I wonder what's wrong with me.
In my own writing, rarely do I provide a lot of description. Quite a few of my stories are mostly dialogue. But lately I've been doing illustrations, so that's my excuse for skimping on the description. I forgot to tell you that all the animals on the Christmas mug other than the two fish wear heavy winter coats. None of them wears pants or shoes, but the bear has a cap and the cat has a scarf, and they all have mittens.
Just for fun I took a look at one of my most recently posted stories, "Chord Progression." It's 499 words excluding title, there's really not any dialogue, and I think only two sentences contain what can be thought of as traditional description.
He's slight but powerful, and boy does he have good fingering.
His cock was hanging down, soft but big, and I could see it lurch upward just a bit.
Slight but powerful. Soft but big.
The bear, the cat, and the dog are all soft but big. The bones are good sized, too. I doubt they were meant to be phallic emblems, but …