Overdescribing

Overdescribing is the practice of providing more descriptive detail than is necessary or appropriate for a given purpose. It occurs across genres and contexts, from fiction and journalism to technical writing and casual speech, and often arises when the describer aims to convey atmosphere, precision, or authority but loses sight of relevance.

Key features include excessive sensory detail, repetitive phrasing, exhaustive enumeration of attributes, and digressions that do not advance the central point. The result can be slowed pacing and reader fatigue, or a distraction from the main ideas.

In some cases overdescribing is deliberate, used to simulate a character's voice, to build mood, or to parody verbose styles. More often, it reflects motivational factors such as uncertainty about what matters or a lack of editing.

To avoid overdescribing, writers and communicators prune nonessential detail, focus on salient facts, and align description with the audience and purpose. Techniques include tightening sentences, using concrete diction, showing rather than telling, and engaging in iterative revision.

Related concepts include verbosity, purple prose, rambling, and information saturation.