Young Writers Society

All you do is get a picture of anything you like, and describe it in as much detail as possible so that anyone reading can truly 'see' the picture without actually seeing it. Try it!

Ha! I just tried this. It's crazy how much I can say about the picture. I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words! Thanks for the idea. It'll be awesome practice 'cause I certainly need it!

My problem is that I always end up over-describing the image without any story emerging. I know the exercise is to encourage detail, but shouldn't clever detail also move the story forward? Arg.

Detail has three purposes for me:

Move the story forward.
Let people know what sort of setting the story is in.
Provide extra emotion to the scene based on what descriptive language was used.

If it doesn't fit in one of the three, then cut it. If it's turning into a block of text and not just sporadic sentences, cut it. Be merciless in figuring out which details are important, but be sure to take into account your story. Some stories do fantastically with rich language, but it's usually because the language is doing double-duty.

But the idea of describing everything about a picture is a great way to find some of those awesome details you normally wouldn't have even thought of at the start. Nice exercise. ^^

That really was quite a great exercise I felt my description skills grow in just a few attempts.