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As I struggle with my descriptive narrative, I find it interesting that I just finished reading a Patricia Cornwall novel (I think it is my 2nd) and she uses not descriptive narrative at all. I can't tell you what the main character of her book looks like. I am sure that she has described her in previous books, but her stark style and the popularity of her books make me think that maybe the "descriptive" part of the narrative is not all that important as long as you spin a pretty good yarn.

Descriptive narrative is hard. It’s important, but its not. It slows down a story for most people. I’ll bet you most of us, reading a novel loaded with description, will unconsciously skip it and get to action or dialog.

The trick is to make description very potent, or mix it in with action and dialog. And even more important, consider your audience. If you’re writing a thriller, description should be crisp and brief. If you’re writing chicklit, the audience is going to want to be there, to see it.

I personally can write pages of dialog with little effort. Description slows me way down, and is drudgery.

Do the work of good description for scenes ... your reader will appreciate the help in 'being there' more readily. The most endearing aspect of Mickey Spillane novels is the descriptive work which places the reader squarely in the scene. Reading adventure novels (for instance) sweeps the reader into 'another world' ... escaping for a time the world around them.

I do... I skip right over most the descriptive narrative because I have such poor spatial skills, that I can't figure out what the damask on the wall or the special carving on the chair looks like.

I'm like you. I can write page after page of dialoge, but when it comes to descriptive.... I just feel like I'm slogging away. And it reads like that too.

I can write dialog, no problem. I can write description.

Attempting to write action, on the other hand, I find excruciating. I can't picture action scenes. I'm the same way with movies - in a long action sequence, I have to struggle to keep my focus. My mind just switches off.

Fortunately, there's no one correct way to write. ;-)