One thing about detail- More is always better, but there is a line.

Generally, in modern lit, it comes to describing clothing. If it takes you more than three solid paragraphs to describe a dress, you've probably put too much detail in.

Spreading the description out over multiple paragraphs, along with action and dialogue is ok.

Example #1

Paragraph 1 - dress only

Paragraph 2 - dress only

Paragraph 3 - dress only

BAD

Example #2


Paragraph 1 - Lulu appeared in a beautiful gown. ("Oh, Lulu, the lace is gorgeous!")

Paragraph 2 - "Green is such a bold statement for the season, what do you think, does Lulu pull it off?"

Paragraph 4 - "Oh, my goodness, those are real emeralds! However could you afford them all?"

Paragraph 7 - The heavy gown made it a bit difficult for Lulu's kidnapper to drag her unconscious body away.

Paragraph 9 - Lulu's blood seeped into the deep emerald silk, staining it almost black.

BETTER


There is no real best way to do this, however. It changes with every story. If you want to move a scene set at a very boring ball, you can have people gossip about the clothing worn by others, thus slowly giving a lot of detail and varying opinions, until you've shown however much time needed to pass for your next section.

However, if you're describing an old weather-worn hermit, you'd only need a fairly bare-bones description of the man's clothing, and be done with it.

Just remember, you never run out of time to describe someone, so take your time to pass it to us.

Example #3

*third chapter after meeting character Bob*

"Hey, Bob, something's been bothering me. Are all of those straps and belts and ribbons REALLY necessary?"

"You would be surprised how often I ended up needing belt-like objects and not having enough before I started wearing them all. I'll admit, I haven't needed to dip into the ribbons to cover the lack, yet, but giving little girls ribbons for their hair is good for cheering them up. ...And it's a really subtle way of making them go away without angering too many people."

"I take it you don't like little girls."

"I do, actually, but only in carefully measured doses, Phil."

Boom, a bit more description, and added characterization!