The question we have been dealing with about how much detail to include in a love scene has prompted a much broader topic – how much detail to include generally in writing? I have been told that I tend to write in a Hemingway style, in an economical and understated style. For example, I might simply write, “She wore a blue dress.” Others might write, “She wore a blue-wrapped dress in a brocade fabric with glimpses of gold thread.”
The level of detail you choose to write should be what you are comfortable with. You shouldn’t go with extremes such as, “She wore a dress,” or “She wore a blue-wrapped dress done in a brocade fabric that gave her a rich look of wearing a fully embroidered dress done with golden thread.” The first example doesn’t give us enough information, and the second may provide too much detail. It’s your writing. The level of detail should be what you are comfortable with. In other words, your style.
