In great writing, every word counts. There’s no need for extraneous sentences. Dialogue starts at the last possible moment and finishes once the point is made. But there is a balance between using words sparingly and leaving the reader unsatisfied.
Striking this balance can be a struggle for me when I move between mediums. Writing a screenplay, I know that every scene needs to either move the story forward, or tell the audience something new about my central character. The visual nature of the screen helps to set the mood and tell the story, which means my description is careful and minimal.
In a novel, though, the reader wants to escape into the world of the characters using their imagination. I can assume that the reader will be able to picture things like the Great Wall of China without swathes of additional description. But there is no costume department, and no lighting director to set the mood. Also, writing too sparingly can rob the reader of the chance to “snoop around in the characters secret drawers and hiding places”, to quote Jessica Morrell.
How do you include enough to satisfy your reader, but not so much you’ve included everything?