Since normally we can assume the sun rose, I think the description should only be happen if the sun didn't rise.  :D

I read somewhere that one should not waste precious space on things people already commonly know, unless something unusual will happen later on in the story that makes that thing necessary and important.  If the description doesn't reveal character or an important plot detail, cross it out, is my rule.

I tend to believe that.  I don't see the point of telling me what an ocean looks like unless there is a storm are a sea montster about to appear.  Very few people write description well.

And I have  a prejudice against someone who spend three pages describing a character and that character does nothing except stand there and be admired for three pages.

I was an English major in college so the classics I read were things like Shakespeare and Dickens with some Brecht and Camus thrown in for variation.  I took pre-16th century drama one year (Ralph Roister Doister, anyone?) and Persian literature (I don't know why). I never picked up a liking for fantasy (LOR lost me with the hairy feet), and the science fiction I liked was more fiction than Science (Bradbury type).  Shirley Jackson wrote domestic comedy and domestic horror stories. I also like mysteries by Jospehine Tey, Ruth Rendell,  and some of Patricia Highsmith's stuff.   I actually have grown to admire Agatha Christie.  While I know style purists turn up their noses at her, no one was more clever at turning a plot around.

I used to like horror when it was civilized and creepy.  Now its just gory boring and I've gone off the genre.

Now I'll step out and let someone else answer some questions.