Setting

In direct contrast to the post below, I have trouble with writing setting.

From the moment I first started writing, I've been told that "the characters are great, but what does everything look like?"

My response is usually somewhere between "I know what everything looks like, but I don't want to spend chapter upon chapter explaining what a building looks like" and "I don't actually know, it's just a clearing in some trees..."

Generally, I have a general idea of what's all going on.  "There's a courtyard here, and it's next to some gardens."  "There's a clearing here in the middle of woods."  "There's a treehouse in that tree."  Sometimes, I'm completely crazy specific and I draw out pictures of where everyone is sitting.  I've played entire chess games with myself to make sure specific moves are possible.

The problem comes somewhere in between me knowing what's going on and what actually shows up on the page.  Sometimes, I get worried that I'm explaining too much.  Or I get bored in my descriptions, and if I'm bored, my readers are bored.  I've read books where the entire first chapter is world-building and I have to force myself to get to chapter two where the story is.

Is setting important? Absolutely, my characters aren't interacting in a vacuum.  I usually try to say that someone's walking down a hall, or they're all sitting at a table, but I don't go in depth on just about anything.  It's something that I'm working on.  Being more descriptive in my setting.  I don't do everything well.