Description of Description Part 2

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes

“ The first fellow was a bit too active, but the second was caught by the under-gardener, and only got away after a struggle. He was a middle-sized, strongly built man—square jaw, thick neck, moustache, a mask over his eyes.”

“That’s rather vague,” said Sherlock Holmes. “My, it might be a description of Watson!”

“It’s true,” said the inspector, with amusement. “It might be a description of Watson.” ”

This is Number 2 in the Description of Description Series.

Read, learn, and comment!

Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life

Gleaned from wonderful presentations at many writers' conferences and many books I've read about writing (or skimmed for the good stuff!)

Tips and Tricks from Authors Charlie Jane Anders, Anne Marble, Brandon Royal,

Anne Lamott, Beth Hill, Melissa Donovan,

How bad is bad description? Think of bad description as being like that teacher who droned on and on and put the class to sleep. You don't want the descriptive passages in your story to put your readers to sleep, do you? Certainly not!

Make Description an Active Part of the Story

To make your stories more interesting, you must find ways to blend the description into the story. Descriptions that just sit there are generally known as "narrative lumps."

Describe What Your Characters Would Notice

Unless you're writing in omniscient viewpoint, chances are that you are filtering the setting (and background) through the eyes of your characters. This will be the case whether you are writing first person or third person limited stories. In the Miller example above, the monk noticed that the pope's cassock was worn because it was something out of place.

Use All the Senses

Most writers tend to concentrate on sight and sound. This is natural as those are the main ways in which we observe the world. However, you can really bring a scene to life by including the other senses. The sense of smell is an important one.

Describe What Your Characters Would Notice

Unless you're writing in omniscient viewpoint, chances are that you are filtering the setting (and background) through the eyes of your characters. This will be the case whether you are writing first person or third person limited stories. In the Miller example above, the monk noticed that the pope's cassock was worn because it was something out of place.

Fit the Description to the Type of Story

If you're writing an action-oriented romance, too much description will get in the way of the pace. James Bond isn't going to stop in the middle of skiing away from gun-toting spies to ponder the beauty of the Alps. He's going to get away from them.

On the other hand, description will be a more important part of many slower-paced stories. If the book is about a hero coming to his hometown to lick his wounds after a divorce, we want to know what the area looks like and why it's so important to him. Also, a spooky paranormal tale might use description to build up the sense of unease -- for example, you might linger on descriptions of dark hallways in the old mansion and hint that there are ghosts there.

Project feelings onto an inanimate object. When you're describing a person, you can give him or her some emotion, like a perpetual scowl or habitual laughter. But when you describe a thing or place, you just have to describe it, because things don't have feelings. Except that we project feelings onto them all the time. A chair might be friendly, or a particular pair of shoes might have it in for you. A building might look as though it's trying to drive you away, with its unwelcoming awnings and grim windows. Instead of a detached, factual description of the columns and arches, tell us how they're gritting their teeth at the main character. This is also good for setting a mood, and maybe a bit of foreshadowing.

And very important...

Don't Let Description Hang You Up during a First Draft

If you're not comfortable with writing description, don't let it get in your way when you're writing the first draft. Remember, you can always go back and add it later. If you have any critique partners, however, you might want to warn them that your early drafts won't have all of the details built in.

Those are some of the tricks that help to make a scene more vivid — what techniques have you found useful for writing descriptions, in your own work?

CVFW members and visitors!

Challenge your descriptive writing skills.

On the Writers Share Page is a challenge to stretch your understanding on just how important setting descriptions can be. Just a paragraph will do. If you respond to this prompt, please copy it into the comments section below.