Young Writers Society

Be a Foundation, Not a House: Description Will Be Your Downfall


Firstly, let me be totally honest in admitting I’m certainly no Saint either. In fact, my older work suggests I too relied on description to force a strong storyline. Perhaps even my portfolio will painfully show examples.

Regardless, description, or rather, over description will be a writer’s downfall. Lately, I have been doing quite a bit of reading in the Lit. Forums, and I’ve noticed a pattern. Too often inexperienced writers assume they can somehow beef up their plot or characters by describing every single detail, right down the color of a freckle.

Description is a handy tool but think of your story as a foundation to a house. Now, we know a house cannot stand against Nature’s fiercest elements, nor stay level without a proper foundation. The foundation is the spine, the bulk of the story underlining the little details such as the house. If we negated the foundation or swiped it, the house would crumble eventually if not instantly. A story is no different. Do not rely on mounds of details building up a three-story house, when the foundation has barely been built, which is the spine, the support system of everything you hold dear.

Be a foundation, and let your story stand against time. Do not hinder it with description or else, your house will crumble.

I used to be the patron saint of over-description. I used to write entire stories because I wanted to describe things, and then try to weave a plot in around the random objects and setting that happened to be there.

I think I'm getting better though.

What you say is the truth, and is a very good way of putting it.

*feels guilty*

That's something I think I do too much of. I can only feel justified when I'm trying to add more words in, or when one of my characters is going off in a daydream.

Good tip and good comparasion as well.

I didn't mention it specifically but adjectives fall under the same catagory. If you wish to force me, the reader, to drop your book in disgust, filled with every other word being a description in a single paragraph, I will without hesitation.

I can promise that Author tenfold, I will never look at another piece again.

Writing is an art, yes, but it's the storyteller's prime job to drop clues to assist the reader to form their own pictures, not paint them a perfect canvas of details. Do not rob your reader's imagination.

*

Now that I'm done ranting, lol, thanks you two. I hope my tip proves useful in future projects.