Skeleton writing

I came across this in a novel I'm reading:


He looked up and saw a group of people dragging a machine.


And my teeth started grinding. Why? Because that was all the author gave to describe the scene.


Part of the job of the writer is to decide how far to go in descriptions. The less the writer describes, the more work the reader's imagination has to do to fill in the details. Some writers go way too far, describing every detail, whether it's relevant or not. Too many, though, do what the author above does, and don't describe anything at all.


And it really bugs me, because the details the author left out are important and leave the reader kind of struggling a few paragraphs later. For one thing, this 'machine' this group of people are dragging--machine is an ambiguous term. There are all kinds of machines. We can assume it's a fairly large machine, since it has to be dragged, but the mental image I arrived at conflicted pretty dramatically with what the machine later turned out to be.


This was jarring and completely took me out of the story. This is a Bad Thing. This is not something an author will want to happen.


It's made worse because the viewpoint character knew what the machine was when he saw it, as becomes apparent a few paragraphs later. That sort of pisses me off, too--it's a fake way to build suspense, and it actually would not have made any difference if the reader discovered what the machine is when it's first introduced. So, I'm also feeling a bit manipulated, too.


Now, how about this--I'm just making this one up:


John met the private investigator in the PI's office. The PI was a tall man, a bit younger than John thought he'd be. There were piles of papers on his desk, along with overflowing ash trays. The room smelled of stale cigarette smoke and spilled Scotch.


Maybe the details you subconsciously glean from the above paragraph will mean something later, maybe not. And you'll notice other than the PI being described as tall and young, I didn't go any further in describing him. So, I'm meeting you halfway--you know he's tall and young,  and you can plug in his eye and hair color--even his race--and everything else. I also implied he's a slob, a smoker, and maybe an alcoholic, and that may or may not be relevant to anything. Now, isn't that better than:


John met the private investigator in his office.


It's a major gripe of mine because I'm seeing this in a lot of novels these days--many of these read like first drafts, not like a finished manuscript. It's becoming more and more acceptable. Drives me nuts. It's lazy writing. It's the author not doing his or her job. More importantly, it's an editor not doing his or her job, catching this, and making the author fix it. If I were an editor I'd be pissed if I ran across this.


Unfortunately, I seem to be the exception. Dammit.