The Art of Descriptive Writing

A fabulous, forest nymph with long hair

The invocation of literary magic lies in mastering the basic elements of storytelling. I’m sure one of these must be your forte:

  • Emotionally attaching the reader to the main character and creating plausible character arcs
  • Vivid descriptions of the setting, which derives from worldbuilding
  • Being the wizard/witch of atmosphere and mood
  • Creating high stakes and mastering the build-up and release of tension
  • Writing dialogue which grabs the reader by the collar and pulls him into your story never letting go until he reads the last line.

Each of the above-mentioned demand descriptions which release only the necessary information. I respect the northern nature because I hunted with my father. My loving memories of him tone my chapters on untamed fells and sacred ponds. I went overboard in my first draft—nothing wrong with the passages per se, except they dragged on with excruciating detail. The reader wants to get on with the plot. You’ll bleed when you delete carefully crafted passages, as I did, but Kill Your Darlings applies to descriptive writing. If you write fantasy, your text feeds on worldbuilding, and the art of choosing becomes a matter of literary life or death. The same applies to historical fiction. As you researched expertise grows, you risk boring the reader with excessive facts.

The greatest classics of mankind can’t be used as a reference on how much to describe. The literary competition has changed since the times of George Orwell and Vladimir Nabokov. Different genres have separate rules on the desired length, and I write thrillers, so you don’t have to agree with me but let me introduce a few interesting theses.

Start With The POV

All fictional descriptions start with the selection of the Point of View. Remember to filter the setting and background through the eyes of your character. Describe what your character would notice, otherwise, you break the spell and cast the reader out of your magical world.

Third Person

The third person is the weapon of choice for most modern authors, and you can choose between omniscient and limited 3rd. Omniscient 3rd: the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story. Limited 3rd: the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented only externally.

An example of the third person:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

George Orwell, 1984

Notice how Orwell binds the setting to the movement of the MC? He uses verbs to describe. And he wrote dystopian—a genre which demands compelling worldbuilding.

More information: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/third-person-omniscient-point-of-view-1277125

First Person

Although the first person has become unpopular in literary fiction, it’s the right glove if you need to punch the reader with what the MC goes through. The 1st person limits what the main character observes through your descriptive ammo. Be careful and remember to invoke emotions.

An example of the first person:

April

Opposite the fireplace and beside me, the telephone. To the right, the sitting-room door, and the passage. At the end of the passage, the front door. He might come straight here and ring at the front door. “Who’s there?” “Me.” Or he might phone from a transit center as soon as he got here. “I’m back — I’m at the Lutetia to go through the formalities.” There wouldn’t be any warning. He’d phone. He’d arrive. Such things are possible. He’s coming back, anyway. He’s not a special case. There’s no particular reason why he shouldn’t come back. There’s no reason why he should. But it’s possible. He’d ring. “Who’s there?” “Me.” Lots of other things like this do happen. In the end they broke through at Avranches and in the end the Germans withdrew. In the end I survived till the end of the war. I must be careful; it wouldn’t be so very extraordinary if he did come back — it would be normal. I must be careful not to turn it into something extraordinary. The extraordinary is unexpected. I must be sensible: I’m waiting for Robert L., expecting him, and he’s coming back.

The phone rings. “Hello? Any news?” I must remind myself the phone’s used for that sort of thing, too. I mustn’t hang up, I must answer. Mustn’t yell at them to leave me alone. “No, no news.” “Nothing? Not a sign?” “Nothing.” “You know Belsen’s been liberated? Yes, yesterday afternoon…” “I know.” Silence. “You mustn’t get disheartened, you must hold on, you’re not the only one, alas — I know a mother with four children…” “I know, I’m sorry, I haven’t moved from where I was. It’s wrong to move too much, a waste of energy, you have to save all your strength to suffer.

Marguerite Duras, The War: A Memoir. Translated from French by Barbara Bray.

Duras’ short, repetitive sentences convey her traumatic stress. The setting comes through as the objects she touches and the doorway a portal where her imprisoned husband might appear. The text centers on the heroine’s mental state—and that’s the beauty of the 1st person.

The Framework of Sensory Perception

The human species relies on visual perception and that’s why writers tend to concentrate on what the MC sees. A tiger might listen and the dog would rather smell if you wrote their POV. When your character turns into a werewolf, remember to incorporate the canine way of taking in the world.

Our senses fail the objectivity test because the brain translates perceptions to fit the overall world view. If you write historical fiction, the cosmology of the era might define if the MC believes his own eyes or not. If a modern doctor stepped into the scene of exorcizing a demon and gave the patient a cocktail of antipsychotic medicines, how would the people of a Middle Age village react? I’m pretty sure none would explain the miracle with the function of neurotransmitters.

The use of due historical language can make your text hard to wade through. Even if you use modern English for the most part, remember that religious communities didn’t allow cursing out loud. The 21st-century heroine can scream ou F**ck and what not but people were God-abiding folks before the scientific/industrial revolution, and everyone attended the Sunday Mass. The reaction to sensory perception minds time and place.

If you write flashbacks, remember that remembering obeys emotion. The smell is a powerful conveyor of memories across decades, and people tend to weapon-focus during torture and battle. The framework guides you which sensory details to choose into your descriptions.

The Big Five

I’ve addressed the five basic senses before in my blog but here’s a list:

  • Seeing
  • Hearing
  • Smelling
  • Tasting
  • Touching

Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which I quoted in my blog post about worldbuilding? If not, check it out:

Nothing stops you from making up senses of your own (Spiderman). If you write within the fantasy or supernatural genre, your MC exercises a variety of abilities like levitation (what would he see from the bird’s POV?) and foreboding (find a unique way to write the MC’s sensory experience during the premonition.)

“Allowing our characters to use their senses will take our writing to the next level. We hear it all the time: show—don’t tell. This is when we make our words come alive as we invite our readers to experience our story—not just read about it.”

Source: https://thewriteediting.blogspot.com/2016/03/using-sensory-perception-in-your-writing.html

List of Other Senses

  • Pressure: if someone grabs you, you can feel it.
  • Itch: everyone knows this one.
  • Thermoception: the ability to sense heat and cold. Follow this sense into writing physical reactions.
  • Sound: sound doesn’t mean only hearing, but detecting vibrations.
  • Proprioception: This sense gives you the ability to tell where your body parts are, relative to other body parts.
  • Tension Sensors: muscle tension. This one is important if your character experienced a beating or battle.
  • Nociception: In a word, pain. There are multiple types of agony and don’t forget the psychological dimension.
  • Equilibrioception: The sense that allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes. This sense also allows for perceiving gravity.
  • Stretch Receptors: These are found in such places as the lungs, bladder, stomach, and the gastrointestinal tract. A type of stretch receptor, that senses dilation of blood vessels, is also often involved in headaches. Welcome migraine!
  • Chemoreceptors: These trigger an area of the medulla in the brain that is involved in detecting blood born hormones and drugs. When your character vomits, this automated sense is firing.
  • Thirst
  • Hunger
  • Magnetoception: the ability to detect magnetic fields.
  • Time: and this one is beneficial for a writer!

Source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/humans-have-a-lot-more-than-five-senses/

Make Description an Active Part of The Story

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Descriptions that just sit there are generally known as “narrative lumps.” The medicine for them is show, don’t tell, but remember that you can go overboard with showing. You need traditional narration to move your plot forward, to foreshadow events and to give the readers a sense of character. Avoid info dumps and sprinkle the description evenly. Remember to bind the descriptive parts into action.

Ways to make the description part of the action:

  • Choose the best descriptors and delete the rest
  • Describe what your characters would notice while they do something else, move or speak
  • Use strong, concrete words to describe—active verbs are your allies.
  • Choose which senses fit the scene. What if your character gets blindfolded?
  • Start from basics while you write the first draft and refine through revisions. Make a note to check the use of other senses beyond seeing.

Use Character POVs For a New Angle

Your writing might become repetitive as the plot progresses past page 250. Use the introduction of new characters to change the way you describe. Strong secondary characters have their separate opinions and help you introduce a new side of the MC. Write a scene where the significant other or sidekick disagrees with the MC on which way they should turn. How does the antagonist perceive the events? It takes skill to rotate POV but check out other writers who master the skill. Also, if your world is extremely violent and cruel (like mine), the reader might attach to a person similar to herself.

Foil and Mirror Characters

Foil characters share few or no values or traits. Maybe one character is lazy and boring, and his best friend is energetic and a go-getter. These are foil characters. Put them together, and they’ll highlight each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The most common foil characters are the heroes and villains, who stand for different values and want to achieve separate goals.

Mirror characters are used for a similar purpose. They tend to share several qualities and are used to complement and highlight each other’s traits. Common mirror characters embark on parallel plots, sometimes to achieve a single goal, which tests them and highlights their traits in different ways.

Source: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/literary-devices/

Mirror Characters and Compassion

  • Using clearly stated comparisons allow readers to see what the protagonist sees and better understand the inner conflict and, therefore, theme.
  • Presenting at least two mirror characters will give the protagonist more opportunities to learn and will strengthen his/her evolution with the theme at hand.
  • Remember that the chief role of mirror characters is to show how they’re thematic opposites.
  • A character arc succeeds when readers see how a protagonist’s behaviors and thinking patterns have changed.

Source: https://diymfa.com/reading/how-mirror-characters-can-illustrate-literary-themes

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Survival Package for Co-authors

Sword wielding bloody viking soldier with warrior queen

When you write a book alone you’re single: nobody cares if you don’t take out the trash, or if you sleep until noon surrounded by beer cans. A writer’s block lasting for three months will drive you crazy, but it won’t delay anyone else’s career.

The case of joint-authoring reminds a marriage. You have a common goal (I hope), and you’re prepared to work together. You also annoy each other sometimes, and small matters can cause huge fights. Afterward, you go on writing the book like nothing happened.

Is Co-authoring a book the right choice for you?

Writing a book together with your natural rivals demands that you trust and honor your colleagues. Choose people whose writing style appeals to you. But what if one of you makes it big with his own product while you’re still struggling with the joint project? The feeling of envy belongs to the literary business. Put jealousy aside and work harder with him. And if the co-operation doesn’t work out, have a plan B ready.

Co-authoring is a serious commitment which shouldn’t be entered lightly. Stay true to your writing buddies through thick and thin. Be honest with them. You have equal rights and duties.

Plus factors of the pact

  • You only have to write a part of the text because other writers do their part.
  • You have expert help at hand. People who know your plot offer great tips. Each one notices different things.
  • Your pals have the drive to help you because without you succeeding, they won’t cross the finish line.
  • You have several people with their unique fanbase shouting your message across social media. Coordinate your efforts.
  • Splitting the costs for editing and book cover. You don’t have to pay for everything without someone participating.
  • You have different strengths and weaknesses. Together you make a stronger unit than alone. One of you knows weapons like a professional SWAT officer, another one creates a killer emotional impact…

Minus factors

  • You split the money you get, and the money is far from a jackpot, to begin with.
  • Amazon doesn’t have a feature to divide the authorship of a book. You must decide which one of you portrays the book on her author page.
  • Sometimes joint authorship means re-writing something which would have been a simple thing by yourself. The plus sides are so big that this is a small nuisance.
  • One of you will write more than the others.
  • Risks of departing and all amounts to nothing

Tips for Survival

  • You must have experience, something to bring to the table. Don’t expect anyone to teach you the basics of creative writing for free.
  •  If someone gives non-constructive commentary, be honest about it; otherwise, you’re going to have a violent fall out at some point.
  • Agree on SoMe postings and PR: what to tell and when? Ask your partners before you post.
  • Write a roadmap and a scene list for the book. This way you minimize rewriting because you don’t develop the plot into conflicting directions.
  • Agree who writes which part beforehand. Divide the workload evenly.
  • Create character wrap sheets for all major characters. The co-authors must know each other’s characters like their own pockets if the same characters run through the book.
  • Share material openly with your writing buddies. Teach others, and they’ll teach you. If you guard your treasured content, how can you expect others to put it all out?
  • Split the costs evenly. The same goes with incoming money, like royalties.
  • Agree on copyright.
  • Negotiate and present justified & clear arguments.

Enter this challenge with an attitude for adventure. It won’t be a walk in the park, I can promise you that. Strike a deal on deadlines, and I’m not talking about synchronizing word counts. Be flexible. Each writer has a different style and mentality. But if your writing buddy gets in trouble with a plot twist, or loses motivation, step in to help. Each one of you will face several writer’s blocks on the way.

Encourage each other to go on. Say out loud when you struggle. This is the most crucial piece of advice I can give you.

What can go seriously wrong?

Unfortunately, everything can go wrong. Usually, life intervenes. What if one of you gets hit by a car and cannot work for months? On a less morbid note, can your motivation take long breaks from the joint project, and pick up writing like nothing happened?

You are likely to disagree about different publishing routes and other life-and-death questions. If you own 50-50% rights of characters and plot, who has the final say? I mean this one can stop publishing after several years of hard work.

What do you consider a deal-breaker? Speak your mind through the whole process. Voice doubts in time!

People have spouses, children and day jobs. Writers usually face losing their job as a possibility to write more, but sometimes the opposite happens: you must work two or three jobs to support your loved ones. You won’t have time to write—or sleep. What happens to joint joint-authorship if one of you cannot deliver, not even after lenient deadlines? It’s human nature to hang on to something we love although we have no power to go on. Writers are incredibly ambitious and letting go is harder if you’re friends with your writing buddies.

What if the one who has to drop out is you?

My advice is this: stay in contact with your former writing buddies. Keep them updated on your situation. Another chance to co-operate might dawn in your future. To avoid a mental meltdown, be honest to your writing colleagues. Request a time-out or stop participating if you must. The others will understand your predicament.

Tools of Co-operation

Call each other if you live in the same country. I, on the other hand, live at the Northern end of Europe. I use mostly email and shared Word files to communicate. Skype is an excellent option because on the live video you see the reactions of others.

Do your writing on Google Docs where everyone can edit and leave comments. Be open-minded about editing. Google Drive and Online Word are good choices- both allow you to synchronize your laptop edition into the shared Cloud. The internet overflows with workshop software, both for PC and IOS operating systems. With the various mobile phone apps, you can edit or comment on other people’s text on the go.

Keep track of your changes. Have a specific file for the final draft. One of you might know the correct format for a finished manuscript, or you can buy the service.

Use a professional editor of high quality. The capability to give ruthless critique diminishes when you become friends with your co-authors. An editor will polish the rough edges and get rid of excess wordiness. The route of choice to publishing makes no difference: well-edited is half-sold in the Indie world as well.

Express Yourself- Finding The Elusive Writer’s Voice

Collection of masquerade masks hang on a home's wall

What do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror? Wrinkles, the bags under your eyes and other flaws… or are you happy with your reflection because it shows the wisdom you have gathered with the mileage?

Maybe you want to be perceived through your work? You tap away on the keyboard,  send the manuscript to the publisher, and they take care of the rest while you write the opening line of your next bestseller in your dusty chamber.

I’d be happy with that.

Perhaps you love the internet and it loves you back. The top agent snatches you off the market because of the enormous following you’ve attracted in Social Media, and the rest is history.

Most writers- people- fall somewhere in between. You can hire someone to do publicity. Many learn the secrets of Indie-marketing through hard work. The public persona of a writer is a mask. You’ll find the intimate person between the pages of his/her books.

You On The Page

Writing a book is a massive endeavor which exhausts any creator. When the storylines run dry, and the tenth editing round tastes like shit, you must use your history to dig up fresh ideas. How does one pour himself on the pages of the book?

When you read the work of world-class writers, you hear a human voice which speaks to you. You sense the writer’s soul- the life which she led. Sometimes the tones are subtle, and you don’t understand where everything is coming from until you grab her autobiography. Lessons in World War molded the writer’s voice of Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and Marguerite Duras. When you look at their work, it’s obvious.

The effort to separate your persona from your writing is futile. You’re working against yourself if you try to hide who you are. It makes no difference if you write a memoir (riveted with true scandals), or a future story unlike anything in the history of Sci-Fi. When you are serious about the art of literature, you must develop a unique writer’s voice.

“The writer’s voice is not something you can measure, it’s subjective. But, even so, possible to be defined and identified.”

The literary agent, Rachel Gardner, defines the writer’s voice: “Your writer’s voice is the expression of YOU on the page.”

Your voice:

  • should reflect you: what you feel and believe; what moves you.
  • The tone in your writing is the most important element of your voice.
  • Your voice is the rhythm that prints the pace of the text.
  • You learn to be a better writer, you change genres, but whatever you write, your voice is always a central element.

Source: https://writingcooperative.com/the-writers-voice-what-is-and-how-to-find-yours-ed82f1884984

The voice is still elusive despite all the explaining. The voice is like Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. It’s something you’ll learn by writing several books and short stories and blogs. You recognize the voice of Stephen King or J. K. Rowling. It’s the common denominator of a career.

Common Elements Vs. Your Voice

Mastering the art of literature demands that you use the excellent writer’s toolset: Consistent Point of View, Showing Not Telling, and answering the Spiritual Question, in the end- to provide a few examples. If you don’t abide by the rules, the reader gets thrown out of your book.

How do you characterize your hero/heroine? Remember, what moves you is an essential part of the writer’s voice. Some main characters appeal to you more than the others.

  1. The willing hero- James Bond
  2. The unwilling hero- Frodo Baggins
  3. The tragic hero- Oedipus
  4. The classical hero- Wonder Woman
  5. The epic hero- Beowulf
  6. The antihero- Tony Soprano (one of my all-time favorites)

Source: https://nybookeditors.com/2018/03/6-types-of-heroes-you-need-in-your-story/

What is your book’s plot type? Adrienne Lafrance describes archetypal plot arcs as ‘core types of narratives based on what happens to the protagonist.’

The six core types are:

  1. Rags to riches (a complete rise)
  2. Riches to rags (a fall)
  3. Man in a hole (fall, then rise)
  4. Icarus (rise, then fall)
  5. Cinderella (rise, then fall, then rise)
  6. Oedipus (fall, then rise, then fall)

Source: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/understanding-storytelling-arc/

Again, your choice describes you as a person and writer.

The Message

I’m pro-message when it comes to writing books. My favorite thesis as a dystopian writer is: “Humanity will never learn,” preferably pronounced with the deep voice of Morgan Freeman echoing into the void. Why? It has something to do with being me. Maybe my life experiences molded a cynical worst-case personality, or I just fell in love with dystopian literature as a fourteen-year-old. Go figure, but I’ve woven myself into the book I’m writing.

My second book will be a supernatural spy thriller. War and sacrifice shall continue to entice me. That’s my writer’s voice going through the loops of natural evolution.

My suggestions for nurturing the elusive ghost of the writer’s voice:

  • Write about things which excite or scare you.
  • Convey a message through your theme.
  • Arouse awareness of injustice.
  • Reveal your moral beliefs.
  • Pour yourself into the characters.
  • Observe the character traits of people you know.
  • Use your life experiences, hobbies and professional knowledge to build the setting and plot.
  • Visit places similar to the environment of your book. Smell, observe, feel.
  • Write what you’d love to read.