By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Detail and description is, I think, a little tricky. Two of my series require a lot of it because of the nature of the subgenre. The quilting mysteries and the Memphis barbeque series are both cozy series with a series hook (crafting and cuisine). My editors for those series have mentioned to me many times that readers of these series really appreciate a good deal of description in terms of the hook. My most current editorial letter asks me for more detail on the quilts the characters are working on, for instance.
On the other hand, my self-published Myrtle Clover mysteries don’t have a series hook (I’ve wondered before if this were a reason the series was dropped by the publisher years ago). The descriptions I use for the characters and settings are sketchier—more of the types of descriptions I like as a reader. I like to get just enough so that I can mentally say, “Oh, okay. So that character sort of resembles my Uncle Joe. Got it.”Continue reading