I said "offputting" in the first question, but only because you said detailed. I have yet to come across a fanfic where detailed description of setting (where said setting is not integral to the storyline) didn't put me off. If you hadn't said "detailed", I would have picked "great for scene setting".
It's something that came up for me tonight as I was both writing and beta-ing; I realised that both my friend (who is not English) and I (who still am if I can only let go of my love for warm Australian winters) include lots of 'bits', like the geography, or current events from when the story is set.
I quite like them in her stories, because she works hard to make them accurate, and I like popping them into mine as they are a sort of love letter to the country I am cheating on, but then I remembered a story I read earlier this year written by someone who was clearly not English and where I found some of the inclusions really threw me out of what was otherwise a very fine story.
I think that your distinction is the key one; there was too much detail in that other story, and it went from scene building to 'Look at all the research I did!'
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It's something that came up for me tonight as I was both writing and beta-ing; I realised that both my friend (who is not English) and I (who still am if I can only let go of my love for warm Australian winters) include lots of 'bits', like the geography, or current events from when the story is set.
I quite like them in her stories, because she works hard to make them accurate, and I like popping them into mine as they are a sort of love letter to the country I am cheating on, but then I remembered a story I read earlier this year written by someone who was clearly not English and where I found some of the inclusions really threw me out of what was otherwise a very fine story.
I think that your distinction is the key one; there was too much detail in that other story, and it went from scene building to 'Look at all the research I did!'
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Yeah, exactly. This kind of thing is usually fairly obvious (and jarring).
I do enjoy little bits that dress up the setting and give it an authentic feel. :)