It is essential that story writers recognize this and use it to their advantage. Consider the difference between these two passages. The first is written by me. The second was written by Charles Dickens. Both describe the same scene, but mine is purposefully crafted in vague generalities where Dickens paints his description in vivid and specific sensory-based detail:

My generalized paraphrase (with sincerest apologies to Dickens): Two horses labored up a hill, hauling a coach on a cold and foggy night. The fog was really thick.

This description sets a frame and lets you know what’s going on, but in no way does it invite you into the experience as a reader. Conceptually, you can see it, but there is nothing there that invites you to feel it. Now experience the craft of Dickens:

From A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens: There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the laboring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.

Now this writing is full of words we can see and touch and feel, pulling you into the experience. Indeed, by the end of the paragraph, one can almost feel the cold fog surrounding you.

Remember, there is great power in crafting subtle sensory detail.