Interacting with the fiction

"Another example of how annoying I can be in information control is lighting conditions. I don't usually give very useful room descriptions before the players egg me on by stating out loud how their characters move forward, closer to the object of interest, raising their lanters up high. I don't know, but I imagine that most GMs would probably be pretty straightforward about giving the room description when a door is opened, but with me the players have to be pretty explicit about their positioning and use of light and/or other observational tools to get more than vague shapes and darkness out of me. I find that all this heightens the clarity the group has on the fictional positioning: we get less of "oh my character wasn't in the room, he's in the next tunnel" when we keep the communication cycles of GM narration -> PC positioning -> GM narration short." http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/14363/

Probably the best advice I've seen for how to narrate descriptions. I worry that my description style swings between too minimalistic and sparse to unnecessarily verbose. I find it difficult to push my players to seek more information. Often times they just sit there after I describe a room, waiting for something else. After a few beats of silence I'll start rolling for random encounters or describing something worrisome and that usually kicks them into action.

Maybe it's my players. Probably its me. Its important to leave voids in the knowledge you give, but hints that there's more. My players tend to form their exploration in terms of questions "is there anything around the corner?" instead of actions "i peek around the corner". This is annoying and tends to prompt me to say "you can't tell just by standing there. You'll have to get closer and look"

How do you get the players involved with the fiction? One thing I've found that helps is killing them. The first time somebody gets unexpectedly dissolved in a pit of acid they realize that 10 foot poles aren't just for show. When goblins start shooting arrows at you from the darkness it becomes tangible. When only one of them is carrying a torch and they get the torch knocked out of their hands and suddenly everybody is blind while a horde of skeletons close in on them and everybody's rolling Dex checks to try and find their flint & steels they realize they should all be carrying lights.

But there's a balance to be found. Too dangerous and they become scared of everything, run from any little spook, and spend all their time pixelbitching with sticks & rocks. Too soft and they start getting cocky.