Amid her comments, I came upon this:
If you want me to dive into a story quit telling how blue the water is, how sparkly the tiles are and how hunky the lifeguard is. Push me off the diving board. Get me IN the damn water.
Which strikes me as a very good way of putting that particular bit of writing advice. (One can, of course, get one in the water while telling one how blue the water is, etc., etc., if it’s done well enough and in a way that ties to the larger story, and isn’t a detachable bit of random description.)