I have trouble with descriptions. I've been living with other people's visual descriptions for so long I don't know what is valid and what is cliché or simply untrue. Do muscles ripple? Can looks convey complicated meaning that takes two or three sentences to explain? What sort of gestures convey meaning as in "I moved my hands to indicate I had no money so that my companion would pay our check whithout drawing attention to my financial embarrassment." What sort of a gesture can do all that? But that is the sort of thing I read about in books as well as long passages about scenery, furniture, clothing, tableware.
This being the case, I agonize over Star's descriptions of things. I've relied on Star not understanding a variety of human behavior and customs. This has helped. Star also lacks tact and subtlety.
Of late, I am wondering if Star can see in the same way humans can. Star can see color, but maybe not distinguish all the varying shades. Perhaps Star's vision is more like a camera. Star needs Ship to interpret what it sees and feed the information back to Star. In that way, Star can report the basic facts, receive needed information when necessary and the reader can use his or her imagination to fill in details.
I also have noticed that writers today describe more than they used to. In older writings, there isn't this propensity for long descriptive passages. This is even true in Sherlock Holmes adventures or a Mark Twain short story. There may be a line of carriages, but the kind of carriages, the number of horses, the dress of the coachmen are not detailed. It's a carriage. It will have the right number of horses and the coachman will be wearing whatever coachmen typically wear.
I've decided to focus more on what Star hears and to think carefully about what Star might smell or feel. I'm not particularly good at this either, but at least I have the resources to explore farther in this area.
