Questions tagged [description]

Painting a picture with a thousand words.

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11 votes
4 answers
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Everyone is beautiful

I've noticed a quirk with the narrator voice of one of the two novels I'm working on. This narrator only describes the beautiful aspects of every character's features. You might think the women are ...
Galastel supports GoFundMonica's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
3k views

How to stop viewing your story as a film

When thinking about scenes and story ideas, I can't help but picture something playing out as a movie. It's so much easier to picture someone moving and doing things than to actually describe what ...
M. McGarry's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
6k views

How to describe a diverse set of characters without falling into purple prose or exoticism?

In my setting, a city was founded by people from all over the world, and developed in almost complete isolation (long version here). The story in itself starts several generations after the foundation....
Babika Babaka's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
4k views

Alternatives to raising eyebrows to show surprise

I’m trying to reduce the number of clichés in my manuscript, and I’ve found 11 instances of characters raising their eyebrows. A couple I don’t mind, but it feels like too many. What other actions can ...
echo3's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
2k views

What are some ways of extending a description of a scenery?

I find it very hard sometimes to describe a scenery, especially when the features are very bland, like you describe a city where all of the buildings are tall and look about the same or a plain with ...
Sayaman's user avatar
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10 votes
6 answers
2k views

When writing down a huge amounts of detail is inevitable

In hard-SF the writer has to adapt to the world and its limitation. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn't a problem, as you can always make something great, even with the limitations. However, ...
Mephistopheles's user avatar
10 votes
7 answers
12k views

Is it important to describe how the characters are dressed?

One thing that I never mention in my stories is how the characters are dressed. Well, except when they are being described for the first time, when the main character first meets them. How important ...
wyc's user avatar
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10 votes
5 answers
8k views

Pregnancy in writing - A bit difficult

In one of my stories, I have a chapter that is all about a woman's first pregnancy and her experience. It is a fictional woman but still, because my writing tends to be on the scientific side of ...
Caters's user avatar
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10 votes
5 answers
3k views

How to avoid pages of dialogue?

I'm starting my story with my protagonist found (by the police), bleeding at a crime scene. When he wakes up, he has no recollection i.e. he's lost his memory. He's interrogated by two Inspectors, ...
Adi219's user avatar
  • 1,641
10 votes
4 answers
9k views

Is shaking of the head positive or negative?

When you say a character shook their head, does that mean they nodded, as in "yes", or they shook it sideways, signifying the answer is "no?"
Klara Raškaj's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
2k views

What's the difference between purple prose and vividly descriptive writing?

Elements of Style describes purple prose as "hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating." In short, it's ornate, contrived and breaks the narrative. There's plenty of advice on ...
quilly's user avatar
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9 votes
9 answers
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How do I write about nerdy concepts without sounding like a tryhard?

How would one express nerdy gobbledygook without sounding like a technical tryhard? For instance, if I were to explain the backstory of something and it perhaps contained the word electromagnetic or ...
User's user avatar
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9 votes
7 answers
8k views

In what order should I describe a setting?

For instance I'm describing the park of an art museum in a foggy day. I'm not sure if I should start with the fog, wind, grass, threes, walking paths, buildings, stairs or something else. Is there a ...
wyc's user avatar
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9 votes
7 answers
5k views

Writing about extreme trauma

I've just written a chapter in which one of my protagonists witnesses her entire family massacred during an invasion of her home city. This is obviously an extremely traumatic and horrifying event and,...
JSBձոգչ's user avatar
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9 votes
6 answers
787 views

Building a scene and readability

When building a scene at the beginning of a chapter for instance, before character interactions take place, what are the important elements to consider, and how long should the description be, before ...
Lanet Rino's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Sensory Information Overload

I'm reading The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith (good stuff if you want to inform the use of emotion in your writing), and I've just come across Overwhelmed (feeling). It talks about the ...
robertcday's user avatar
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9 votes
6 answers
9k views

How to introduce a world that's alien to the reader

I'm writing sort of a space-opera and I was wondering what would the best way to explain everything about the world to my readers. The story is kind of a political intrigue, and it would be very easy ...
Burnlan's user avatar
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9 votes
5 answers
757 views

Am I breaking the "show don't tell" rule in the following passage?

Then, as if sensing my presence, the girl turned around. She looked young. Probably sixteen or seventeen. She had long black hair, crimson red lips, and a skin so pale it made me wonder whether ...
wyc's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
792 views

How to write about what you don't know?

I am a strong believer in writing what you know. Everything I write is at least partially based on something that I have experienced. My problem is that for plot reasons, I need one of my characters ...
Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land's user avatar
8 votes
7 answers
1k views

How specific should descriptions of settings/appearances be?

Some people tell me there are not enough descriptions in my book, some say there are too much. How do you know how much detail is enough? Is there like a rule of thumb for these things? Do I leave ...
Klara Raškaj's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
3k views

How do you describe things without making a list of characteristics?

Like my question above, I am mostly messing up at describing my character without making a huge list of words. It sucks to know that readers are now skipping over the description that tends to be ...
Artemis Silver's user avatar
8 votes
9 answers
1k views

Good idea to describe the heist place before the heist begins?

I'm working on a heist scene where five thieves are supposed to enter a corporate building and steal a few documents. It's supposed to be a major scene so it won't be short. I need the readers to ...
Amin Mohamed Ajani's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to make a fiction more visualizable by readers?

I was reading through Agatha Christie's novels and I found that she literally made me visualize everything in the plot. How does she do that?
Riotheavn 's user avatar
8 votes
6 answers
5k views

Writing about drug induced hallucinations and paranoia

Not long ago I wrote a short story about a mathematics graduate student on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The young student is innocent and working to finish a difficult mathematical derivation ...
Amichai's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is this kind of description not recommended?

I think I read somewhere that when writing, you shouldn't describe characters by their characteristics i.e. The tall man walked across the room Is this true? Maybe I'm misremembering
klippy's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
456 views

How to describe something, that would normally be shown by facial expressions?

When I think of a scene, I often think of little hints or gestures, to express certain things or thought processes. For example a character breaking eye contact, but quickly looking back to not show ...
Minix's user avatar
  • 181
8 votes
4 answers
637 views

Tips and tricks to describe more

I'm careful with the phrasing of this question as it is dangerously close to be opinion based. Everyone has their preference regarding the amount of description they expect to find in a work of ...
Nyakouai's user avatar
  • 183
8 votes
3 answers
492 views

Naming things the POV character doesn't know

My middle-grade novel is third person with one primary and one secondary viewpoint character. Sometimes the narrator hovers a bit more, sometimes the narrator is more in the character's head. The ...
Cyn's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
454 views

Knowing when to use pictures over words

When writing about food, be it a cookbook or a food blog, as long as the media supports it, the use of pictures is going to make a difference in the quality of the work. So when I am writing about ...
Summer's user avatar
  • 4,461
7 votes
6 answers
2k views

How can I write a book where a lot of explaining needs to happen on what is visually seen?

I have a story in mind that I would like to put onto paper. However, this story takes place in a world vastly different to ours with complex wildlife. Think about the movie Avatar, something among ...
Murinus's user avatar
  • 231
7 votes
4 answers
632 views

Describe illustrated characters?

I'm writing a YA fantasy novel in my free time that I plan to illustrate myself. Most if not all named characters will have their 'picture' presented to the reader as soon as they are introduced. ...
Not A Vampire's user avatar
7 votes
6 answers
707 views

How do I write an action scene?

I have recently written an action scene, and I am not satisfied with it. It sounded choppy and inconsistent, and I'd love to know how to write it so it makes sense, doesn't sound like a robotic ...
A curious writer's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
310 views

How does one go about describing someone doing Naruto like hand symbols?

Like how do I describe if someone is doing symbols with their hands like this? I want to describe specific hand formation but that seems like it’ll be a whole paragraph just for one second of saying ...
Angel's user avatar
  • 1,664
7 votes
4 answers
140k views

How can I describe nervousness?

Becoming nervous in the heat of a situation. Perhaps you witnessed something not for the faint of heart. Like, how would I describe shaky legs without being so boring about it.
H. Alley's user avatar
  • 183
7 votes
4 answers
4k views

How to realistically describe pain?

So, I was doing a writing excersie, I came up with, to help me with sentence structuring and developing my style. One thing, I ran into, however, was that I couldn't describe pain very well. The ...
Mephistopheles's user avatar
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

Is a specific physical description of characters required, or l can the details be left to the reader?

Does a physical description have to be specific to make a character feel real, or can the physical description be general and the details be left to the reader's imagination?
Virginia's user avatar
  • 601
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

Do I need to repeat character descriptions of main characters from one book to the next?

In the second book of my trilogy, do I need to repeat everything about the main characters' appearance from the last book, or can I just mention a few key things?
Klara Raškaj's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
510 views

How do I get rid of overused words in my story?

I did a word frequency analysis on my story. Unsurprisingly, the most over-used words often corresponded to passages where I was lazy with my description. I'm tackling my over-used words "laughed" ...
Eric J.'s user avatar
  • 631
7 votes
2 answers
228 views

Any helpful tips on how to, better use description in my writing?

I feel as if, the novel I am writing will have a great plot and I have some creative ideas on where to go with it. My only concern is my ability to develop description through out my story. Any tips ...
Rhyan's user avatar
  • 71
7 votes
2 answers
203 views

Sentence openings variations to avoid repeating determiners and pronounces

I have a question regarding sentence openings in English language. When I write most of my sentences start with determiners and pronouns (personal and posessive). This gets repetative quickly. For ...
user18993's user avatar
  • 857
6 votes
8 answers
3k views

Describing something that doesn't exist [duplicate]

I'm in the middle of my first draft for my novel, and I can't seem to properly convey to my audience the image I'm trying to describe. That's what I want to show my readers, but it's coming across ...
Aspen the Artist and Author's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
3k views

Describing the taste of food

I’m asking about this not because I have a tendency to do so myself, but rather because I find it unusually aggravating when I come across it in other people’s works. I’m wondering if this sort of ...
Grace's user avatar
  • 1,006
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Describing body language?

This is something I've pondered before. I asked about one gesture on yahoo answers long ago. All I got was a guy saying that even he didn't know the term for it (it was the gesture where someone holds ...
user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

How can I describe technology while avoiding problems with scaling?

Worldbuilding chat has pointed me to this stack because it's less about defining the technology and more about how to express these definitions in a relatable and realistic way. A pretty frequent ...
Nzall's user avatar
  • 715
6 votes
3 answers
413 views

How to find ways to enhance character's sensory experience?

A common piece of advice young writers get is to use all of the senses with which the POV character perceives their surroundings. I can feel how important this piece is. I would like to describe ...
Rico's user avatar
  • 609
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

How do I describe an accidental kiss between the two main characters that is romantic as well as regretful?

How do I describe an accidental kiss between the two main characters? I want to make it so they got caught up in the situation and that both of them apologise to each other after that, like a kiss ...
Yass Meen's user avatar
  • 370
6 votes
4 answers
497 views

How do you use showing in animal fantasy?

When I read showing in stories with people, they describe facial expressions for showing (among other things). What can a writer use in an animal fantasy? I'm sure it depends on the animal, but ...
johnny's user avatar
  • 1,343
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

How do you use adverbs properly in fiction writing?

How do you use adverbs properly in fiction writing? In a related question, a reply states: When to use [adverbs]? When your alternative would be pretentious. There are strong nouns and verbs, that ...
elika kohen's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

How should you describe turning pages quickly? [closed]

I want to describe this action. How should I describe this action?
Momobear's user avatar
  • 255
6 votes
3 answers
198 views

How to describe a seemingly-random doodle/symbol, whose details are significant?

In my Crime/Mystery/Drama screenplay, there’s a seemingly random doodle at the bottom of a mysterious note. The random doodle looks like a three eyed stick man with a hat. It is drawn with only lines ...
Marcus Meier's user avatar

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