How much scene description is enough / too much?

This question arose in my recent Core: Style class from U.K. based writer Philip Brewster:

Great question, Philip, as this really is where rubber meets the road, a question we face with every scene we write. There’s actually no set answer, rather each writer has to determine this per each script.

Part of that is simply learning what to include and what to omit. We may see a scene so vividly — the fire in the fireplace, paintings on the wall, couch with potato chip crumbs, window open as the sun sets, etc — but obviously we shouldn’t include all of that in scene description.

My advice is this: Only include what is essential to the scene. The first level of determination is does it impact the plot? If so, include it. If not, probably best to cut. The second level is does it help to create a sense of atmosphere, tone, basically create a sense of reality in the reader’s mind’s eye. This is where it gets tricky because how much is enough and how much is too much.

Part of this is figuring our your Narrative Voice. Your NV may be prone to terse description. Or they may be more loquacious and tend to editorialize or go into more detail. This is your story’s invisible character, so you have to pay attention to that aspect of Genre + Style = Narrative Voice.

Finally, your question raises the point yet again. Read scripts. The more movie scripts you read by professional writers, the more you just ‘get’ how to approach the issue of how much/how little.

Of course, the default mode is to write however you feel it in a first draft, knowing you will always be editing, so if you overwrite description early on in the process, no problem. You can always tighten and trim in later drafts.

How about you: How do you determine how much scene description to include in your script?

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