BillyxRansom

And how do I find how to describe something, without knowing the word(s) for it?


Thanks in advance.

Ungood

huh?

Like trying to describe an "Orange" as a Round fruit with a rind the color of yellow mixed with red filled with juice tangy meat?

Ungood.

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BillyxRansom

The scene of wherever your main character is. Like do you start off a story with a description so that the reader gets an idea where the character(s) is/are?

Sam Winchester

If the person's in a shopping market, bank, or anything else that is generic and that the reader already knows (to a certain degree) what it looks like, you can omit the descriptiveness.

Sam.

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Nevermore

Why omit description when it could add so much to the scene? Intense writing needs a good, realistic setting and description is the easiest way to that. In the only media where we can directly reach the mind and memory of our audience, why should we ignore the ability to involve them?
I am known for over-description, but I think description should start when you feel too distanced from the action. Plot is fine, but it is worthless if you have no real involvement; you just don't care what happens.

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That black shadow whose words shone light on the deepest concerns of the soul did give the name "Nevermore"
"Only this and nothing more."
"Oh, and type Bernard's Letter into Google. It'll do ya good."

Nevermore

And thesaurauses are good to help you find the words to describe things. There is an internet version - Thesaurus.com - which always helps me.

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That black shadow whose words shone light on the deepest concerns of the soul did give the name "Nevermore"
"Only this and nothing more."
"Oh, and type Bernard's Letter into Google. It'll do ya good."

Sam Winchester

Why describe a room or a shop if you're aren't intending on staying there for more than thirty seconds? It's a waste of time. The same with banks, schools, and other places of business. The majority of them look the same anyway. Tell your reader it's a bank, and he'll pretty much build his own picture of it. Spend two pages describing where every chair is sitting in the bank, and the reader will put the book down and go read something else. Over-descriptiveness kills a story unless it is done very, very well.

Sam.

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Jax1108

I use to think the same way Nevermore, untill I started posting here, learning from these fine folks, and now I know better. Being descriptive can be distracting. I use to not know what that means till I read someones work who was way over descriptive...I forgot what was going on. Like Sam says, it needs to be relevent. Readers dont care what the floor looks like or how the wind sounds or anything like that unless the floor or wind is about to eat them....does that make sense? (Also, mind you, I have a problem with description because thats my favorite part to write so I feel ya however, that is beggining to dwindle now the more I learn.) Letting the reader use his own imagination is part of the power of reading. If you tell me how everything is...I'll probably get bored....

Look at Joseph B's work. He is a perfect example of allowing the reader to see something so vividly but without being very descriptive. It's a skill, and Billy, its a skill that is developed over time and lots of practice. I too sometimes am at a loss of how to describe something, I think rather abstracted and in a way that doesn't make sense to people. Read and write a lot, write down whats in your head then edit it like 100 times. You'll eventually get there.

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Warning: Contains mass amounts of cheese.

Ungood

I finally got the question: Here is the answer.

Know your style. You got to do what makes you.... You

Wish I had a good answer but if all stories opened the same way, that would suck.

Trusts me... we will tell you if your opening flops... we live for that type of stuff.

Ungood.

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Katastrof

I think that description is important when something matters. If its trivial don't spend too much time on it, but there really isn't a set-in-stone rule about it. You could launch into description right away (Be wary of that though; you don't want to bore the reader at the beginning of your story.) or just leave it until its necessary.

However I do believe description can be used as a powerful tool if you know how not to over do it. But you certainly shouldn't be afraid to use it...

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Read: Auld Lang Syne

"Carpe Diem, quam minimum credula postero"
(Seize the day put no trust in tomorrow.) ~ Horace

Wallmaker

If the scene is important, emphasize the important features of the location as quickly as you can.

William Goldman, a famous screenwriter once described a whole bar in one word: Shitty. And really that was enough to know all you needed to know especially if you the reader or the view have been in a shitty bar. All shitty bars are the same!

If you aren't familiar with the place, it's time to do some research! I once walked into a police station, looked around and then politely asked the officer on duty how a person could break out of the fingerprinting room and what it looked like in there... etc etc. I had a professor who actually called a cruise ship and said... How could I take over this cruise ship? What do the rooms look like? Why are the weak points the weak points?

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Just Jim

I think you're getting the extremes here so far. It depends a lot on where you are. Describing a bank is not useful or interesting UNLESS it's a huge bank with high ceilings, and a gun fight is about to break out. Then you have a setting for the echoes and ricocheting bullets.

The living room of a home can be described in minute detail, if it tells the reader about the person who lives there. Of course if the writing isn't very good it will be boring, but the narrative and dialog will be too.

I'm learning to write descriptions for my own benefit, and then trim them down to what is useful.

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http://jimsstories.wordpress.com/
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The Oddville Press
Accepting short stories, poetry, and art.

Just Jim

WallMaker,

All shitty bars are not the same. I've checked.

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http://jimsstories.wordpress.com/
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The Oddville Press
Accepting short stories, poetry, and art.

jellyfish

Gotta agree with Sam, if it's not important, skip it. As a reader, I can't tell you how many long descriptive passages I've skimmed over. I want the story, man!

By the way Sam, love this, "it's called storytelling not storyshowing."

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jellyfish

just another day in paradise

Nevermore

I just want to make clear that I am not an advocate for over-description, but an advocate against omitting it altogether. Intense writing needs good description, but not all scenes will be intense.
And even in a mundane situation it does not take much to set the scene a little. Take a bank, for instance; the unique smell of paper, the continual unfriendly draft on your back, the catch of your foot on the nylon carpet... you're there in less than two lines.
Really, it's all about function and balance. The key is to re-read and focus on the reader, not the writing.

__________________
That black shadow whose words shone light on the deepest concerns of the soul did give the name "Nevermore"
"Only this and nothing more."
"Oh, and type Bernard's Letter into Google. It'll do ya good."