How to Write Description

Here is the post I promised earlier. I still haven't settled in properly at home yet; my boxes still crowd the hallway, and I haven't unpacked my hundreds of flowery summer dresses, but I seriously need to blog more (it's on my To Do list, don't worry).

Anyway, this post is all about description and how to write it creatively. I have a real problem with writing description, or setting the scene. I can see it in my head and so think everyone else can picture it too without going into much detail. Rookie mistake. I also think when writing description that it will distract from the plot; I am very much an action writer and love to get to all the exciting bits straight away. I have to slow myself down and force myself to write about the scene. Or sometimes I write all the action parts and then go back through and add the setting later.

I was thinking about this when I came up with a great idea on how to get the descriptive juices flowing. Stick with me here. This workshop comes in three easy steps.

1. Below is a series of pictures and I want you to write a 200 word description about each one.

You can write it from any Point of View, and in third, second, or first person.

Try to include each of the five senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Obviously, it might be hard to include them all. You might think how can I taste a place? Well, in the desert your character's mouth could be very dry, and that would say something about the setting. Don't go OTT as you only have 200 words.

Remember, the best description works with the action.
Don't write: There was an old wooden chair in the corner.
Do write: Ben eyed the spindly chair warily. It looked like it would collapse under the weight of a feather, let alone his hefty backside.

2. Think about a setting in your own novel, short-story, or flashfiction. Even if you're rubbish at art, I want you to draw out the scene. It can just be stick people, or it could be a masterpiece. Drawing a scene can help you to realise what's important in that setting - what's essential to include in your writing and what you can skim over. Now write another 200 words based on that drawing.

3. Give that drawing to a friend, preferably someone who also writes, or send it to me, and see what they write. They could pick up on something you wouldn't have thought of before, or make you realise something the reader will need to know about that place.

Its only a simple workshop but it should help when finally writing that novel.

Okay, ready? Here come the pictures...

They're quite varied, so have fun! I'll write about them too and draw my scene and post them in a couple of days. I hope this helps! 

Character Profile Sheet

Character Profile Sheets are very important in writing. And I have created the most awesome one ever. It is a combination of the two I have posted before. It has all the details you would need to define any of your characters. Fill this sheet out and you will know your characters back to front and inside out.

Basic
Name:
Gender:
Date of Birth:
Age:
Birthplace:
Nationality:
Social Class:

Family

Family Background:

Marital Status: 
Children & Ages: 

Pets: 

Physical Appearance

Height:

Weight:
Hair Colour:
Eye Colour:
Tattoos or Piercings:

What do they sound like:
Typical Outfit:
Any Other Info:

What would you find in the pocket/handbag:

Accommodation

Where do they live (City, Countryside):
Living Arrangements (House, Shared, Rented): 

Do they share it with anyone:
What is their home like: 
How do they get around:
  

Personal Information
Hobbies or Pastimes:
Favourite Films:
Favourite Books:
Favourite Album:
Favourite TV Programme:
Favourite Sport and Team:
Favourite Food:
Favourite Drink:
Favourite Colour: 

Perfect Weekend:
Ideal Holiday Destination:

Personality
Best Point:
Worst Point:
Mannerisms:

Morals:
Fears:
What is the thing that worries them most:
What do they look forward to:
Temperament:

Have they lost anything important to them:
What do they hate most: 

What is most important to them: 

What are their obsessions:
Do they have an ambition:
What do they dream about:
What are their secrets:
Do they believe in religion or life after death: 
Do they get on with other people or avoid them:

Who do they love: 

Has their heart ever been broken:

Do they have a best friend or someone they can confide in: 
Did they have a happy childhood:
What were they like in their childhood: 

When were they happiest:

Education

Schools attended: 

Current year/grade:

How well are they doing:

Favourite Subject:
Most Hated Subject:

Profession

Job Description:

Degree of skill at occupation: 

How do they feel about their occupation:

Salary:
Hours Worked:
Job Satisfaction:
Reputation at Work: 

Twitter - Writing Hashtags

So I found out today that these are good hashtags to use if you're a writer and have twitter.

#amediting posts from people who are editing
#amwriting posts from people who are writing
#askagent agent questions and answers
#author
#authors
#editing
#fictionfriday
#fridayflash flash fiction on a Friday
#nanowrimo national novel writing month
#novels
#novelists
#poem
#poet
#poets
#poetry
#pubtip publication tips
#publishing
#scifi
#selfpublishing
#vss very short story
#webfic web fiction
#weblit web literature
#wip work in progress
#wordcount
#writegoal
#writequote
#writer
#writers
#writetip writing advice
#writing
#writingtips writing advice
#wrotetoday 

#YAF young adult fiction

These came from the website http://www.dailywritingtips.com/ who also have a very helpful twitter account @AdviceToWriters. They frequently quote famous authors who actually have good insights into writing. Having twitter is a great thing to have if you want to be a writer as you really get yourself out there. You can also connect with other authors, I follow Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, and Bret Easton Ellis, who all give you fantastic advice. J.K Rowling has twitter too but she rarely uses it. Another great account to follow is @LitReactor who offer useful tips and interesting book news. 

Another Character Profile Sheet

I found another Character Profile sheet, this one was given to me last year in Creative Voice. It's quite similar to the other Character Profile I did on Princess Prudence but with a few different points. It's more specific this time, and mentions a lot of modern things like TV and Films, so may not be as easy to do for Princess Prudence. I may do it one someone else, like Margaret Jones, who I haven't written about in a while.

But I'll leave the list here while I decide on what character to do it for.

Basic
Character's Name:
Gender:
Date of Birth:
Age:
Marital Status:
Nationality:
Social Class:
Morals:
Ambitions:
Education:
Favourite Subject:
Most Hated Subject:
Family Background:


Physical Appearance
Height:
Weight:
Hair Colour:
Eye Colour:
Tattoos or Piercings:
Any Other Info:


Personal Information
Hobbies or Pastimes:
Favourite Films:
Favourite Books:
Favourite Album:
Favourite TV Programme:
Favourite Sport and Team:
Favourite Food:
Favourite Drink:
Perfect Weekend:
Ideal Holiday Destination:
Accommodation:


Personality
Best Point:
Worst Point:
Mannerisms:
Fears:
Looks Forward To:
Temperament:


Profession
Job Description:
Salary:
Hours Worked:
Job Satisfaction:
Reputation at Work:

Writing Tips From The Best

I found these lists of writing tips on this website: http://www.openculture.com/2012/01/writing_rules.html and thought they were really useful! After writing a critical evaluation on my own work, I have realised how hard it is to create something truly brilliant, and how many million, trillion mistakes I make! I should remember all of these tips while I write and maybe I'll start getting more firsts!

Henry Miller (from Henry Miller on Writing)

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to the program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can’t create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep human! See people; go places, drink if you feel like it.
8. Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9. Discard the Program when you feel like it–but go back to it the next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.


George Orwell (From Why I Write)


1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.


Margaret Atwood (originally appeared in The Guardian)


1. Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.
2. If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.
3. Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.
4. If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick.
5. Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
6. Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What ­fascinates A will bore the pants off B.
7. You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.
8. You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.
9. Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
10. Prayer might work. Or reading ­something else. Or a constant visual­isation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.


Neil Gaiman (read his free short stories here)


1. Write.
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.


William Safire (the author of the New York Times Magazine column “On Language”)

1. Remember to never split an infinitive.
2. The passive voice should never be used.
3. Do not put statements in the negative form.
4. Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
5. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
6. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
7. A writer must not shift your point of view.
8. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
9. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
10. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
11. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
12. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
13. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
14. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
15. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
16. Always pick on the correct idiom.
17. The adverb always follows the verb.
18. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.