Describing things?

[Penpilot]

Any advice on this?

I try to use the feel of our world to describe my worlds in my writing. Try finding an open, but not too open, place, preferably a forest or a park but even a city plaza surrounded by concrete buildings will work, then sit for 15 minutes. Observe your surroundings with your eyes, overlay the world of your fiction onto this world, see what things become. Then close your eyes, listen and feel your surroundings, again pretending it's your fiction world, what do the sounds you hear represent. In a city plaza, the buildings can become trees, the car horns the call of wild creatures, the smells the taste of exhaust into a pungent smell of a bad smelling flower.

I know this sounds all artsy but try to capture the feel of the location, and when you write, try to recall bits of the feelings you felt to use in the description.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Try to think about everything that is happening about the situation/thing you are describing. For example, you could say:

Alex picked up the sword.

But that sounds kind of boring. You could say:

Alex hesitantly picked up the ancient sword, it's surface gleaming and polished.

That sounds a bit better. Just try to keep what's happening all in consideration. If the character is walking you could say how their footsteps echo in the empty hall, or what the character is thinking, or just anything really. Look at what you want to describe and begin observing it. Think about everything and every detail revolving around it. You don't have to literaly know everything or tell the reader everything but it helps and you get a more organized idea.

 

[Kenny_K75]

There's another thread with info on this at
http://mythicscribes.com/forums/writing-questions/4159-descriptive-passages.html
Hope it helps...

 

[Ghost]

There's almost no description of the Faerie forest in either book of my duology, and I think that really needs to change. In the second book, my characters are going to be spending three weeks travelling through the woods, so I really should put more words into showing what the woods look like. Any advice on this?

Hm, if you've envisioned the forest it helps to be specific in the description. An alpine forest is very different from a rainforest. The forest has a different feel dependong on the season—spring or fall, wet or dry. Things like scents, sounds, visibility, and the types of trees and creatures that live there can add to the scene. I imagine myself walking there. Is it rocky? Grassy? Full of roots or groundcover? Is the canopy dense, making everything dark? Or are the trees short and sparse? I'm not saying you should go on and on about it, but it's easier to imagine if I know it's scrubby forest in boulder-strewn hills or a forest filled with lakes, wild berries, and pines as far as the eye can see. A good way to use that kind of description is to show how the setting helps or hinders your characters.

Since it's a fae forest, I'd try giving it some personality. Maybe it's beautiful but dangerous, dark and melancholy, or cheerful but somehow false. I usually have a good idea of what the scenery is like, but when I have trouble I infuse aspects of something unrelated. The forest could be like a gothic cathedral, Disneyland, a heavy metal concert, a painting by Andrew Wyeth, or Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. Having a reference point is useful when I don't know where to go, and using something unrelated forces me to think of the scenery in new way.

I also play up what the characters feel. If it's frightening, what's frightening about it? If the character thinks it's lovely, what makes him think so? Being specific about how the setting inspires feelings is better than being vague. Those things can easily be colored by the character's views.

You could describe the most obvious things in the beginning and sprinkle in the tidbits your characters learn as they travel. Sure, they immediately noticed the purple trees, but it might take them longer to realize vines overtook their path until try they double back.

I'd keep in mind what the character is likely to notice, how important it is or what it adds to the setting, and what impact it has when experienced by that particular character.

(I'm not sure how useful any of this would be to Burst, but I think these things can be applied to other settings and to characters.)