I'm guilty of this, so I'm sure you are too. Have you ever read something and as you're reading it, you think to yourself "I don't need to know this much"? It happens to me all the time, even with my own stuff.

Before, I've said that you need to remember the details. I'm not changing my mind, I'm clarifying myself. You do need to remember the details. Just not every single one.

Recently, I was standing in the library, scanning a new novel that I was thinking about taking home with me, and I found myself bogged down in the minute details of the room the characters were in. Right down to the pattern of the wallpaper and the thickness of the carpet. It was very annoying, distracting, and hard to keep track of later.

Here's what I learned that I wanted to pass along to you: There's information and then there's too much information. Don't give it all away.

By putting too much detail in your scene, your reader no longer has the ability to imagine it for themselves. Color of the paint on the wall and the furnishings of the room is great. The exact pattern of the wallpaper or the size of the print on the window of the coffeeshop is not really necessary unless it furthers the plot. Is the print on the window part of a murder mystery? Then put it in. If your lovers are realizing that they want to get married while sitting in front of that window, we don't need the detail.

Another way to think of it is when someone is talking to you, and they tell you more about something than you want to know. I don't care what caused the funny smell in your bodily excrement, that's too much information (this happens to me more often than you think, I'm sorry to say). If the detail isn't important, cut it later on.