Part of a special month-long event featuring writing tips and NaNoWriMo strategies from guest writers and fellow NaNo participants.Tips for Writing Descriptive Scenes
by Em Petrova
Painting
a picture for the reader has never been so important. How many of you have
picked up a book, hoping to immerse yourself in a new world, and been
disappointed to find your imagination hasn’t launched off your sofa?
It
might be the description in your story that’s lacking. As writers, we need to
do everything we can to take our readers on a journey—and most of the time
readers want to escape their own universe! So how can we help them do that? By
adding some terrific description to our writing! Here’s how:
1.
Use
language that paints a picture. Adding colors and smearing them over the
landscape of an ancient world will shoot the reader right into the setting.
Help them to see the object, person, or world through your characters’ eyes!
2.
How
do the objects relate to each other in the scene? Details about each individual
item might get tedious, but a comparison is rich with sensory responses. The
carpet of grass is spongy underfoot, but Avery steps on a jagged stone—a stone
that feels as big as a boulder under her sensitive arch.
3.
Don’t
let the reader know you’re being descriptive. A big information dump sometimes
occurs in the beginnings of scenes. We learn about the setting in one fat
paragraph—how it looks, smells, how everything sounds. What if you shatter this
like a mirror and place the fragments throughout your story?
4.
Don’t
use too many adverbs or adjectives. Readers enjoy strong language—no wimpy
writing allowed!
5.
Don’t
be too lyrical. Internal rhymes can get annoying, as does flowery language.
Most modern readers don’t want to read Walt Whitman!
6.
Don’t
write lengthy descriptions of Aunt Mariam’s wallpaper unless later in the
story, we’re going to see drops of blood spattered on said wallpaper. Watch out
for irrelevant description.
7.
Provide
concrete examples. If your story is set in space, we need to see comparisons
between those objects and the ones we know on earth. We have no idea what a
mugala vaporgun is, but if you say it’s like holding a soldier’s heavy rifle,
we can picture it better.
8.
Describing
every little detail can be tedious. And often the reader enjoys a romp with her
own imagination. We don’t need to know every last detail of a hero. If you
leave a few spaces blank, the reader will create her dream hero in her mind!
Hope
some of these tips will help with your next story. Thanks for reading!
Em
Petrova
~hardworking
heroes—in bed and out~
by Em Petrova:
Star-crossed lovers Magda and Monroe must overcome racial differences and fight off the evil Free Wills to save the city and their romance.
What, you don't want a page and a half about Aunt Mariam's wallpaper?? LOL. Thanks for this great post, Em!
ReplyDelete