#writing descriptions

[heywriters]

How to Describe Eyes in a Story

#writing #writing tips #writing descriptions #character description #writers on tumblr

[cripplecharacters]

i am researching port-wine stains and how to write facial differences, and was so excited to find your post about it!! i'm still struggling though, specifically with how to initially describe the character. i don't want the physical description of the character to begin with the facial difference, as if it's the only thing that matters in describing her, but I don't want it to seem like an afterthought either. do you have any suggestions?

Hi!

I'm glad you enjoyed the post!

When it comes to descriptions, I personally don't think that mentioning it first is necessarily bad. Now, if you were to only mention it as if it's her only facial feature, then it could be a problem. But if you were to say that she has a birthmark and then go on about her eyes or nose or mouth, then I think it's fine. Especially if her port-wine stain is rather large - sometimes it covers the entire face and/or visibly changes the shape of it, or the skin texture, like in Sturge-Weber Syndrome - it's reasonable to mention it early. You can mention both at the same time too; maybe her hair contrasts with the mark, or it matches her eye color? Maybe her ear(s) also has the PWS on it, and she wears some eye-catching earrings? Maybe the shade of her lipstick blends with it? These are just random suggestions, but as long as her FD is not the only thing the readers will learn about her appearance, it should be okay.

As always, I will mention to be neutral/positive in the wording you use, but it sounds like you're already aware of that!

I hope this helps!

mod Sasza

#mod sasza #wickedwriterfaerie #face difference #writing descriptions #writing resources #writeblr #writing advice #writing help #writing tips

[so-many-ocs]

describing your main character in first person (+ examples)

request from instagram

comparisons: using another character as a point of reference

our eyes were both blue, but hers were piercing chips of sapphire, while mine were more the color of dishwater.

they stopped growing in middle school. i didn’t. now, though i wouldn’t consider myself a giant by any means, i tower over them with ease.

i got my father’s squarish jawline, but he had a nose to match, whereas my face seemed more like a mismatched collage of features from both parents.

dialogue: other characters commenting on the mc’s appearance

“i don’t know,” she says. “you have a bit more of a pear-shaped build, so i think an empire waistline would look good on you.”

my father looked at me and sighed. “a mullet is... definitely a choice.”

“huh,” he said, reaching out to poke my upper forearm. “i always thought your tattoo was meant to be some kind of weird abstract flower.”

action: the main character interacts with an aspect of their appearance to let the reader know it’s there

i rolled up the sleeves of my jacket. it was a faded green thing with rips along the elbows from a few too many falls on the pavement, and i seldom took it off.

i pushed my glasses back up the bridge of my nose, cursing their thick lenses.

my nails were chipped, but i gnawed at them anyway.

i shook the stray curls out of my eyes.

showing (related to action) something occurs within the story that naturally reveals a part of the character’s appearance

the man gives me a once-over, then a twice-over, and smiles at me. i tuck a loose blonde strand behind my ear and smile back.

the white silk contrasts starkly with my skin.

even with heels, the book was too high up for me to reach.

i hold each watch up to my face, comparing it against my undertones, before securing the silver one about my wrist.

reflections: the character sees part or all of their appearance in a reflective surface (can be overused)

my reflection startles me with its puffy, reddened eyes and tear-streaked mascara and ruined lipstick. i looked so put-together at the start of the night.

i held up the knife, angling it so that my own piercing green eyes stared back at me.

the rain last night left behind still and scattered puddles. as i pass them on my way to work, i am followed by my hunched silhouette, darkly clothed, reflected dozens of times.

advice

break your descriptions up into smaller, more digestible bits and scatter them throughout the beginning of the story.

don’t wait too long to describe your mc, as you might be ruining the reader’s established mental image if you introduce a key detail later on.

don’t worry too much! if a book is first-person, you don’t need to agonize over the littlest parts of someone’s appearance. focus on the most important or noticeable parts (a scar, a facial feature, a limp, dyed hair, a prosthetic, etc.)

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#🌿 writing #writing advice #writing tips #descriptions #writing descriptions #character description #writing help #writing resources #writer tips #writing reference #fic writing

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

how do you approach writing description?

oh man... there's not really an approach 😅 it's more like me circling around it and throwing lassos around phrases and key words i wanna use while the image in my head tosses its beastly head around and dances out of reach 🤣

there are some key strategies and techniques i try to use though!

describing people: vibes, expression, colors. if i tell you "she had large brown eyes and short blonde hair" you get a quick glimpse of her, ig. if i tell you "she smiled widely, all dimples, her hair falling over her shoulders in golden coils as she tilted her head" you can see her much more clearly AND you know something about her. pair physical discriptions with hints of personality, it works way better!

describing scenery: be like the poets. make things like other things! the street is a river of black water. the house is the color of sand with shutters like mist and you can almost almost hear the fog horn as you look at it. the sun scorches your back as you trudge through the sand dunes, coated in white fire. people will be like "ooh that's so good you're so good at describing stuff" and you'll be like "hahah yeah"

describing feelings: i'm a very visceral person so when i feel emotions i really feel them in my body. when trying to put myself in my characters' shoes i imagine what their body will feel like when they're experiencing those feelings. i stick to corporeal stuff like "aching lungs" and "soaring heart" and "stinging eyes." so, less descriptions like "his pained expression broke her heart" and more like "the downturn of his mouth sliced like a knife through her ribs."

sometimes if a scene is really intense i don't describe feelings. it becomes an out-of-body experience where the character kinda dissociates. "her blood painted the ground where she lay, staining the pavement, the sky, and the taste in his mouth."

so yeah just a bit of a peek into how my writing process goes 🤣 it's definitely never this smooth when i'm ACTUALLY writing, usually i have to go back and add in descriptions where they might be missing from the scenes. hopefully this helps whoever comes across it! and you too, anon, if you were looking for advice lol.

#writing #writing advice #writing descriptions

[rather-ace-writing]

PROMPT/IDEA- Hope you enjoy!

”Of course back then, you hated me.” The pirate mused, twiddling a blade’s hilt between her hands.

“I do, still, very much hate you. Don’t delude yourself into believing we have some sort of civil bond.”

“I saved your life! Three times!”

“May I remind you, Captain, that it was you who endangered me in the first place. Three times.”Frowned the politician, looking away to hide their growing smile.

#pirates #story prompt #writing prompt #creative writing #short prompt #story ideas #writers block #writing #writing inspiration #writing prompts #creative writing prompt #dialogue ideas #character dialogue #writing dialogue #writing descriptions #descriptive writing #character description

[em-dash-press]

Do you have any tips on how to write about an environment your character just stepped into, or how to explain it to your audiences?

Hey there! Sure thing—describing a new environment for a reader can sometimes feel clunky. You don’t want to write a product description, but it might feel that way occasionally.

My first tip is to give yourself some creative room to breathe. Get that first draft done, even if it’s just the one scene. You’ll have something to work with and improve as needed. Eliminating clunkiness is much easier when everything is out of your head and on paper.

My next tip: use your senses.

Let’s say your character gets out of a car and has to explore a marketplace to find a specific vendor. They’ll see the busy crowds, the cobblestone streets, the makeshift stalls with homemade goods. But what else is happening around them? The reader will be more drawn into the scene with another sense detail or two.

You could mention the seagulls calling overhead as they circle the area for dropped food or trash. Maybe the breeze carries a salty scent because the marketplace is beachfront. You don’t have to use every scent to describe a new setting, but one or two make the new place more vivid for your reader.

Another tip: use real locations as inspiration.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to fully visualize a setting, especially if it’s more creative than realistic. Whenever possible, I try to find pictures of similar settings to help me describe them more accurately.

If I were writing a scene that happened in a fantasy world where trees came to life and battled the woodland creatures who lived in their branches, I could find a picture online of a forest to get the setting right. The image would help me more accurately describe things like the way the brush grows along the ground or how the sunlight looks when it cuts through a leafy canopy.

Most of my stories have separate folders with pictures I've used to create locations. I'll look back on them when continuing the story or making edits!

My last tip: take your time to bring the environment to life.

When you walk into a huge chain store for the first time, you won’t know where everything is or what’s on every shelf. Imagine walking into a Walmart or Target in a new city. The layout is similar, but things are often in different places.

Your character might not automatically know everything about a new place they enter. Describing everything would clash with what they’re able to understand at that point in your plot and make the scene unrealistic.

You can always describe the environment as your character explores it. Mention a few aisles they pass by to set up the type of store they’re in, like shelves of kitchen appliances and glassware sets. They could have to dodge people pushing carts around and crowding the halls. Maybe they ignore the sweet aromas drawing them to the bakery section because they need to grab something quickly and head home.

I hope these tips help! If you want a few resources, I’d check these places out:

4 Tips to Help a Reader Visualize an Environment How to Write Descriptions and Create a Sense of Place Show Don’t Tell: How to Show Not Tell in Writing With Exercises Setting of a Story: How to Create a Story Setting that Attracts Readers

#writing descriptions #settings #setting a scene #describing a scene #describing an environment #writing tips #writing resources

[sorrowandchartreuse]

A writer's guide to describing passing out

Because i just passed out (again) and the second thing i thought of upon waking up was that glazed donut no mark save it for your art post, here is a list of what you could use when writing about characters passing out:

Beforehand:

you're going to feel really, really lightheaded. for me, that's what starts it all off. it's going to feel like when you stand up too fast, but it never goes away. your head doesn't clear

eventually, that lightheadedness feeds into a tv static sort of fuzziness. your head is whirring, almost. it's like a really drawn out buzz. you feel it in your forehead, in your jaw, in your ears.

your mouth starts to get thick, too. that tv static moves in there. your teeth start to feel fuzzy, especially the front and back ones.

by now, youre shaking and your limbs are heavy. at this point, i know to sit down, but it depends on your characters! is this regular enough of an occurance for them to know to sit? are they going to reach out to another character because they know what's going on? or are they going to reach out because they don't know what's going on? do their knees buckle and they fall while all alone?

it's all very disorienting at this point in the process. you have enough sense to form thoughts, but they're not all that coherent. words? not going to be that coherent either

During:

you can't pinpoint the exact moment you pass out. at least, i can't.

when you're passed out, there can be certain degrees to alertness. for example, i've had times where it feels like years pass but it's only a few seconds. i've had it feel almost like im in a really foggy dream. i've had times where i dont remember anything from it. most recently, i didn't remember passing out itself, but i remembered waking myself up from it. it was a very conscious struggle, where i knew i was passed out and i needed to wake up now

does your character remain somewhat alert? do they enter a dream-like haze? what's waiting for them there? i've seen faces and shapes there.

i personally can't feel when someone is touching me while i'm passed out, regardless of degree of alertness

do they know that being passed out is Just Not Right? do they wake themselves up?

Afterward:

you pee. that's just the deal. your bladder is going to release. i know this is not romantic, but like man thats just what happens.

peeing, like most things, could hold a plot point. who cleans your character up? or if they're on their own, how do they clean themselves up?

youre also drenched in sweat. just absolutely sopping in sweat. passing out loves the release of excess body fluids. its sexy like that

mention sweat on their neck, their forehead, their hair pressed down by it. do they wipe it off? do they have the strength to? if they don't, does someone else?

your face will have no color. describe this, but don't stop at the face. your character's lips will also be drained of it.

you will be wobbly. standing up, even sitting up, is going to involve a lot of shaking.

when you first talk, it won't be loud (fuzzy tongue, remember?) so it takes a couple tries to get what you want to say out. or if you do get it out right away, it surfaces extremely weak

it's important after you pass out to get fluids in you. not just water, but orange juice, cocoa, anything that will get you awake again. who gives this to your character? if there are multiple characters present when your character passes out, who won't leave their side and who runs to get something for them to drink, knowing it will help them?

your hands will shake lifting anything

it takes 3-5 minutes for me to regain color again

it takes about 5-10 minutes for me to feel normal again, but this likely depends on the person and how often passing out occurs for them

Please keep in mind this is based soley on my own experiences! also please feel free to add on! i hope this helps!

#writing #writing help #writing descriptions #writing injuries #tw passing out #writeblr

[tinyreviews]

Writing Tips: Descriptions

1. Focus on Feeling and Experience:

Descriptions should convey emotions and experiences more than visual details.

2. Specifying detail:

Be specific about what's important to the story. Details should serve a purpose.

3. Skip the Mundane:

You don't need to describe everyday or irrelevant aspects of the setting. Readers can assume normalcy if not specified.

4. Know the Baseline:

Understand the standard or baseline of what you are describing. Then, describe what deviates from this norm, creating a mini-story within your descriptions.

This is part of my Writing Tips series. Everyday I publish a writing tip to this blog.

#writing tips #descriptions #writing descriptions

[sagewraith]

We walk until the moon reaches its zenith, a cataracted eye glowering from the star-drowned sky.

The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw

#the salt grows heavy #cassandra khaw #excerpt #night #moon #writing descriptions

[thepedanticbohemian]

These are options for "laugh" in your writing. However, use them sparingly. They're like anchovies...not everyone wants to see them on their pizza.

#writing descriptions #writing #writers #writers on tumblr #writing community #writerscommunity #writer things #novel writing #writerslife #writers and readers #writing tips

[let-me-iiiiiiiin]

I realized I'm not really all that great at describing smell, so I decided to make myself a guide about it.

Take it apart, Spongebob

1. Components

Smell is made up of chemicals but ALSO a bit of tactile sensation. The temperature of the thing you are smelling DOES play a role in its perception. This is proven true both in taste, smell, and touch— the absorbance of an experience ALWAYS affects the impression one gains from it.

Not only this, but AIR ITSELF has its own components apart from temperature: mainly, humidity. It is a huge part of sensation— do NOT tell me you've never scowled because of extra dry, sharp cold air in your nose. "Smell" in writing is not solely contained within the realm of "chemicals". It is simply anything to do with the receptors in your nose, which are also tactile as well as chemical. (As I said before, the "touch" component also gets lumped with the "smell" component to create an ultra fucked up super smell voltron.)

So without further ado, components of smell:

A) Temperature (Affected by both origin of smell AND environment)

B) Humidity (same as above)

C) Actual Smell (which is composite particles from the THING they're coming from)

And since this is a guide, I suppose I do need a more concrete analysis tool than "these are the ingredients."

Do a flowchart, Spongebob

2. Analysis

A) Is the source of smell spread-out, or concentrated?

Is it like petrichor (which, while it DOES have its source (the ground) is spread mostly evenly through the air) or is it like a flower (which has a concentrated point of origin (unless it's a flower MEADOW)).

B) What is the temperature?

Is it like smoke (hot)? Or is it like a snowfall (cold)? Or maybe it's room temperature idk. Is it warm like a newly slaughtered sacrifice? Is it cold like an frozen body? Is it warm like a flesh husk made home by fungi and insects and lush plant life? And when you think of those, I bet you can smell their temperature too.

C) How much liquid content?

Basically how much of that smell is made up of water (or other associated liquid). 10%?? 30%??? 80%???? If it's above 100% that's called "You are not smelling anything that's water and you are now choking." Blood should generally smell a bit humid, depending on its freshness (not that I've ever smelled blood but this is the imagination not reality). Snow should smell of different water content depending on the surrounding temperature— colder weather will make it smell more like ice than water, but also the humidity will make it smell warmer.

D) What is the flavor profile?

It doesn't help when you think of "What does it smell like?" because you can usually IMAGINE what it smells like, and there's no way in hell you're gonna be able to get that out into the world without really advanced lobotomy. Stop thinking of this in terms of "What does it smell like?" and start thinking "What OTHER THINGS smell like this?"

Smells are diverse. Smells are CLOSELY associated with experiences. Even when you're smelling something entirely new, you smell it with the gut reaction to associate with something else you've experienced.

This "experience" is not limited to other smells. The experience can be visual, auditory, tactile, or even just an emotion. Attending your father's funeral under the cover of rainfall, and a year later on the anniversary opening the windows to a soaked street, can make the rain smell like loss. The rain can smell like wet wood. The rain can smell like a funeral casket.

BUT it is important to match the flavor profiles!!! While writing the above description I had the immediate association of "wet wood", but when I tried to think of others, they didn't fit, even though they are also associated with the funeral. Funeral garlands are also there, but matching "funeral" + "rain" + "wood" with "flowers" didn't feel right. So I just expanded on the association of "wood", and upgraded it to "funeral casket".

I feel like this much is a basic enough guide. I could make some more examples but I feel like that would take an eternity. So with that said, a closing statement:

Bake a cake, Spongebob

Describing smell isn't like writing action scenes. It is not just one thing— there is depth and layers to the object of your prose, and therefore your description (when it counts) must also be multi-layered. It must evoke sensation, feeling, or any of the aforementioned significant things that I can't remember right now. Smells are tools. Smells are characters unto themselves (certainly, some smells have more depth than the very characters smelling them).

What you need to do, is essentially "bake a cake". The cake is a composite of its ingredients— viscous eggs, smooth milk, handfuls of sugar crystals— but it is not ONLY the ingredients. The cake is a monstrosity and amalgamation of everything that went into the making of it, and the end result is something that you cannot clearly associate with what made the cake a cake. Not anymore.

ALSO I realized after going through this that here are usually vocabulary lists to describe smells, but like, those are all adjectives. They're just words. If you don't use them meaningfully they are just going to remain words on a paper. So yeah, smells are Experiences not just "saccharine", although the vocabulary SHOULD be used to enhance that experience.

So yeah, I need some more practice with this

#writing #writing help #writing descriptions #god I need to actually write and not just write about writing #this is not an extensive guide because I don't have the time nor energy to make one #also because I would expend some of my precious writing juice (which I'm collecting) #so yeah this isn't supposed to be a very technical guide #it's just sort of like a review or some tips #to tip your mentality in another direction #ciao suckers #my writing

[cripplecharacters]

You said somewhere that characters with facial injuries shouldn't be descriped as "good-looking despite it", but rather as good-looking *with it*. How do i do that without sounding weird?

Hi!

I think this one mostly comes down to wording. I would avoid using words like "despite [their injury]", "even with" etc. in that context when describing someone.

For me, it's all about not making it seem as if their difference is ugly and that the person who has it needs to compensate for it with other features to not be seen as ugly. So instead of saying

"they were pretty, even despite [their injury]"

you could say

"they were pretty and had [an injury]"

to avoid making a connotation that visible disability = ugly trope, stating it the same way you would say "they were pretty and had freckles" (or any other basic facial feature). Basically describe them as any other character and try to look out for wording that equates their disability to something gross or unsightly. You can state that your character has a drooped eyelid the same way you would mention they wear glasses - something neutral that doesn't make them inherently ugly or pretty, it's just a part of their face.

I think it might feel weird to do that in the first place because people with facial differences aren't pretty much ever described as good-looking at all, so it feels strange to do something you probably have not seen done before. But I think it will feel normal after a couple tries, and you get used to it.

I do not think you need to be making lengthy descriptions about how a character's facial difference makes them the most beautiful person in the world. I don't think the character needs to necessarily be beautiful either - though I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that - it is just to not say it in a backhanded kind of way if you decide to go for it. Describing facial differences as inherently ugly, gross or even evil/monstrous is extremely normalized in literature and media, so just not making that connotation is already a big plus. Making the character with them positive and/or good-looking is just a very welcome bonus (and a breath of fresh air).

I hope my answer makes at least some sense and that it was at least a bit helpful. Good luck with your writing :-)

mod Sasza

#anonymous #mod sasza #writing descriptions #face difference #writing advice #writing guide #writing help #writing resources #burn survivor representation

[heroes-villains-side-blog]

Yo!

I want to practice my descriptive writing so I looked it up and this page seems helpful

It's probably common sense or basic info, but I'm unobservant irl and never had a creative writing teacher so this could be a good resource for me so I'm sharing :)

#writing descriptions #writeblr #Penlighten

[ellesliterarycorner]

Writing Descriptions

Wednesday’s post was all about writing dialogue, and now we move on to my personal favorite of the two: descriptions. In my opinion, both dialogue and descriptions can be extremely hard to write, but something about descriptions is just a little bit harder even though I prefer writing them. I also prefer reading descriptions. A well-crafted description can absolutely pull a reader into a story. It brings far-off lands and creative settings to life, and makes made up characters feel as familiar as our own best friends. That was my little poetic appreciation for descriptions which does not help you write them at all, unfortunately, so without further ado, here are some tips that help me when I’m writing descriptions. 

But I Already Know That

More often than not if you hear the word sky, you’re going to picture the color blue. If you hear the word ‘clouds’, you’re going to picture some thing fluffy and white, maybe a nice cumulonimbus if you will. If you hear the word grass, you’re going to picture that green. My point is that generally with common things like the sky, clouds, and grass, we already have a clear enough picture of what those things look like in our minds. Something I see all the time is that authors will take the time to actually write out, “the sky was a beautiful shade of blue with fluffy, white clouds. The grass beneath was green.” Well, yes, most readers would assume all of those things. Using basic adjectives that already come to mind when you say something defeats the purpose of having descriptions. They’re unnecessary, and they bog down your writing. If you want to describe the sky, it better not be blue, and if it is blue, either describe what about that blue is so particularly noteworthy or write a much shorter sentence. The sentence “Clouds dotted the sky.” brings the same image of the sky as the sentence above, but it’s much more focused and less redundant. Just because you’re writing a description, doesn’t mean you always need tones of uber descriptive words.

Thesaurus.com: Friend or Foe?

Which leads us into our second tip. I used to get annoyed when teachers told us not to use the thesaurus on our writing assignments, but now as someone who has read things where the author most definitely used a thesaurus, I get it. Using a thesaurus isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They can give some really interesting words, or jump start the creative process when you’re trying to figure out what word fits in a sentence. But, if a peasant character in your story is suddenly describing things as ostentatiously opulent instead of just saying beautiful or fancy, I’m going to be suspicious. That’s also why you have to take into account who is describing things and whose POV you’re in. Just like with dialogue, a well-educated princess and an illiterate peasant are not going to describe things the same way. Even when you’re trying to make descriptions beautiful and such, they should still fit in with what we know of the character and they’re knowledge level, ability, etc. And, yes, you should probably use more interesting words than beautiful or fancy, but if you feel like beautiful and fancy are the way to go and fit within your story, go for it! Honestly, my favorite descriptions are simple ones where the author wasn’t trying to impress me with their SAT-level vocabulary. 

All the Senses

Descriptions tend to focus heavily on sight, but using all five senses in your descriptions can make for a lot more detail and make your reader feel like they’re right there beside your charters. It really brings the scenes to life and makes them so much more interesting to read. One of the common writer saying is “show, don’t tell” and including a lot of vivid sensory details can help you make sure that you do a lot more showing than telling. For a quick rundown, here are the five senses and some ways to use them: 

Sight: the most obvious, what does the character see around them. 

Touch: how does the environment around them feel? Are they running their hands across the damp, cracked stones of an old castle? Are they barefoot at the beach feeling the sand on their toes?

Hearing: sounds are some of my favorite! The sound of rain on a cold, dark night. Waves crashing against the shore. Birds chirping in the distance. 

Smell: Are they in a factory district that smells like smog? Or are they in a beautiful garden full of fragrant, sweet-smelling flowers?

Taste: Taste is a little harder, but describing the different taste of foods when describing a new culture in your story is a great place to start!

Back to Third Grade Language Arts

In third grade, my teacher told me that after third grade, I would only be allowed to write in cursive. She was completely lying, and because of her, I now physically cannot write in print. But, she was not lying about the importance of literary devices and figurative language. Of course, in third grade, my knowledge of similes started and ended with my mom saying that looking for something was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, my literary device skills have grown since third grade even though I still cannot write in print. Silver-linings, I suppose. Even though there are a plethora of of different literary devices at your disposal, oftentimes sticking with those simple similes and metaphors makes for the best descriptions. Metaphors especially. They’re a great way to tie a character with a certain object and sprinkle in a little foreshadowing while you’re at it! Another good literary devices for descriptions (when used in moderation) is onomatopoeia. They’re normally super descriptive and immediately conjure up a very specific image in the reader’s mind which makes them especially great for shorter descriptions!

Five Pages to Describe a Dres???

Add it to the list of reasons one Sarah J. Maas, owes me a personal check. It might not be exactly five pages, but it was a long, freakin time. Pretty much every time the character changed clothes, we got an exceedingly long description of her new dress or pants or tunic or whatever. Please, don’t be that person. I think one or two descriptions of an outfit could be a great thing to add to your story, but adding several in or describing every time your character gets a new outfit will just bog down your story with descriptions and bore your reader. Granted, I am no fashion guru, but still. And, I think a lot of authors fall into the trap of over-description. Everyone is so scared of falling into white-room syndrome or not providing the reader with a vivid enough description that they describe every single detail of every single room the character walks into. Especially, if it’s a place your character will be at frequently, you don’t have to describe all of it in one setting (because that does count as an info-dump). You can describe enough to give the reader an idea, but also let them fill in the rest. For example if I write, “Every aspect of her bedroom was pink and frilly. Typical of a girl of seven.” You have a pretty good idea of what the bedroom looks like, but I didn’t have to write a whole paragraph explaining every aspect of every single dresser, curtain, or chair in it. Everyone always lauds descriptive paragraphs, but sometimes less is more!

#writers #writers on tumblr #writing description #writing descriptions #writing #writers of instagram #writers of ig #writing tips #writing tip #writing reference #writing resource #writing resources #writing references

[rather-ace-writing]

PROMPT/IDEA- Hope you like it!

The warm summer evening fell warm against their skin, the winding town’s streets providing short patches of glorious shade. Under the high mountains all felt calm, isolated in a comforting sense.

#story prompt #writing prompt #creative writing #short prompt #story ideas #writers block #writing #writing inspiration #writing prompts #creative writing prompt #writing descriptions

[kaisbookyippee]

I think the thing people get wrong with character descriptions is they shouldn’t be about how someone looks, they should teach you about the person themselves.

For example, “he had white hair” is alright, but “he had sleek white hair that glimmered and sparked, falling delicately to his waist. Part of it on his left had even been parted into a perfect braid next to his face” yea it sounds pretty but it also shows he’s really neat and takes good care of his hair and probably overall appearance. Smooth hair all the way to his waist?? This guy must be a sorcerer!! There’s no way that’s possible!

This is only a surface level example. You could say someone has stains on their jumper and suddenly they’re careless and clumsy, or overworked, or were in a rush. Even if it’s a simple and basic description, one that tells you nothing about the character other than their chiselled chin and blue orbs compared to one that teaches you all about who they are or, even better, who they want people perceive them as always come out on top!

Also don’t describe eyes as orbs that too

#writing #writeblr #character description #writing descriptions