Describing the Scenery

[ThinkerX]

Ironically, my current WIP, which was supposed to be the concluding five or six chapters of the last WIP, is heavy on 'scenery,' almost a travelogue in places. The scenery is experienced through the POV characters, who have different takes on what they're seeing, and concerns of their own.

 

[Malik]

Something I've been trying to improve on in my writing is describing scenery. I've noticed that I tend to focus very heavily on dialogue and character actions and take very little time to actually tell the reader what a place looks like. The problem is, every time I try to write anything more than a barebones description (e.g. "The house was little more than a run-down shack alongside the road") I feel like I'm seriously breaking the narrative flow. I'm coming to realize that it's just not something I'm very good at right now. Should I try to spread details throughout a scene? Or is it better to give everything at once as soon as a characters enter a room? What level of detail is necessary? When do I know I've been detailed enough? Does anyone have any advice?

The key to describing scenery is to describe what's important. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is written in omniscient third; here, the narrator describes the local wizard's house, concentrating only on what the POV character notices that's out of the ordinary. The narrator could have gone into greater detail, but it wouldn't have mattered. The point of this is, the local wizard has bigger problems weighing on his mind than the quality of his house. That's all the reader needs to know.

Maybe this helps.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I tend to agree with this, it fits my style of description and taste, but I also know some readers who would disagree as well as writers. It gives an impression I like, but at the same time it creates a blank space that not all readers want to fill in. Of course, this could change with a better sense of the city and its architecture, or previous descriptions of period and decor.

The key to describing scenery is to describe what's important. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is written in omniscient third; here, the narrator describes the local wizard's house, concentrating only on what the POV character notices that's out of the ordinary. The narrator could have gone into greater detail, but it wouldn't have mattered. The point of this is, the local wizard has bigger problems weighing on his mind than the quality of his house. That's all the reader needs to know.

Maybe this helps.

View attachment 2708

 

[Toby Johnson]

describe it as the people are walking through it, if its something in the distance write it as they see it. a small speck in the distance, with probably some definining features, then explain it more as they get closer.