As I’m trying to do my part, I’ve decided to write about a few things in writing I feel like I have a good understanding of. I’m not master at anything, really, but I hope my ideas can help in some way.
Description is something that some people feel is useless, that it takes away from the main story. Some writers avoid description completely. That’s fine, admittedly, but description is an excellent tool you can have at your disposal if you can use it right.
I have learned that description shouldn’t exist for its own sake. Like everything in a work, it needs a purpose. Luckily, there are many purposes it can have.
The first is perhaps the simplest, to be eye candy. One of the most memorable things about the book, The Sight by David Clement-Davies, was its almost poetic quality. I would read certain passages over and over, so enraptured in the beauty of it all. If you want to promote a certain style, description can help you with this.
Description can be emotive. You can use it to set a scene or build up a character. We all have archetypes floating about our heads, imprinted there after years of life. You describe a spooky mansion and people will be prepared for ghosts, for example. You can use this to even throw readers off.
Description can help you show what sort of person the narrator is and what mindset they have. Do they notice everything? Are they oblivious? Do they not know the difference between blue and turquoise, a Labrador and a Golden Retriever? Do they look for threats when they look around a place?
Building upon the idea of being emotive, description can characterize. Does the person like to draw? Maybe they have graphite smeared along the side of their hand. Do they wear cat hair on their body like an extra layer of clothing? Are they so competitive they wear their team colors all the time?
These were the four ideas that immediately popped to mind, and you can probably figure out more. There’s one rule you should follow, of course.
Description should never be boring. If you try to argue that, remember a reader shouldn’t ever want to skip pages if you’re doing things right. You don’t want to describe Mandy as a tall brunette. That’s boring. Get away from your first thoughts. Think of what truly defines the character, would push the story ahead, and all else. Make the words count.
As another note, you should avoid cliches to your best ability. While a reader might let you get away with saying a character’s skin was as white as snow, they won’t like it if you keep that up. If you must write similes, try to make them new, interesting, and make sense.
Don’t overdo it. I enjoy description perhaps more than the average person, but even I know to use it as tempering. Don’t halt everything just to include it. As always, keep a good pace when writing. If possible, include the description amidst action, and use it sparingly. There’s no need to give away everything at the same time. Keep things moving. The good news is, if you involve description steadily, the reader will continue on, because they haven’t just come to a grinding halt at a sudden pile of information about a setting, character, or otherwise.
Be as realistic as possible with description. Unless your character enjoys exaggerating or has a reason to, don’t try to make everything magical and overly impressive. That is, if something is normal to your character’s world, normalize it. If it is new and exciting, make it seem so. On that note, focus the description on the most important aspects rather than everything possible. Remember, the reader is meant to take up the character, the character shouldn’t be written as if they’re a reader. If that makes enough sense.
Remember everyone sees things in their mind differently than you, which is one reason why movies based off of books often times seem quite terrible. Be sure to be clear, otherwise confusion will be the end result.
Avoid adverbs and avoid repetition. You can use description as ‘markers’, motifs and prompts for the reader to remember a character, but don’t treat the reader like they’re stupid. As a general rule, never treat the reader like they’re stupid, even if your demographic is quite a bit younger than yourself.
Lastly, there’s one ‘game’ I’ve found to be quite useful with poetry, and you might as well try it out for prose as well. Write down what comes to mind first, then use nothing you’ve mentioned before and rewrite. This helps you think out of the proverbial box. If you're unsure how to even begin the process, feel free to find a descriptive passage in a book and then write it through a different character's eyes or give it a different emotional feeling.
Now, feel free to hit me with questions, comments, etc. Feel free to also post bits of description below that you feel is a bit wonky and I’ll try to help you out.
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