Sleeping Readers

My teenage daughter has what she jokingly calls 'Deb's Commandments' for life and they are:

1.) Dude, don't bore me
2.) Ever

We could apply those same 'commandments' to writing. When writing, don't bore your reader. Ever.

What bores readers? It varies. For me, it's too much detail about one particular item. For example, it's enough to say the rocking chair on the porch is brown. Maybe even toss in that it's weather beaten. But if the chair is not essential to the story and the writer tells all about the history of the chair (brought that sucker all the way from Not-on-the-map, Tennessee), describes who sat in the chair over the decades and how that great, great, great grandpa loved to rock in that chair but grandma hated it...arrrrggggghhhhh..too much information.

Too much detail slows a story down. Too little detail and the reader doesn't get a clear picture of the setting. The answer?

Lay the foundation of the setting to give the reader what they need to know to get a vivid picture but don't build the entire house in one scene.