As a reader, I read and let the story take me away – transport me beyond my armchair. I can go to any era, any country, be anything I want to be. I can imagine great fetes of magic, the impossible, and the romantic. I can even get the hero at the end *heavy sigh.* I’m not alone. In the book On Writing Romance, Leigh Michaels says:
“The goal of writing a story is to make the readers feel like they’re right there, sitting quietly in a corner as the action unfolds – watching, listening, smelling, touching and tasting right along with the characters. When the readers feel like they’re part of the story, they become so involved that they can’t put the book down.”
I agree with Ms. Michaels, my goal as an author is to write stories that evoke a reader’s emotions and puts them into the story. I’ve always said I paint stories with my words. Not too long ago I came across a resource book that leaped off the shelf and grabbed me, Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan.
Below is an excerpt from Ms. McClanahan’s book.
· Descriptive passages create the illusion of reality, inviting the reader to move in, unpack his bags and settle in for a spell. They provide verisimilitude, what John Gardner calls the “proofs” that support and sustain your fictional dream.
· Description composed of sensory detail penetrates layers of consciousness, engaging your reader emotionally as well as intellectually.
· Carefully selected descriptive details can establish your characters and settings quickly and efficiently.
· As a framing device, description establishes the narrator’s, or character’s, point of view. Shifts in the description frame (or eye) can signal shifts in point of view or a significant change in the character.
· Well-placed descriptive passages can move your story along, shape the narrative line and unfold the plot.
· Descriptive passages can act as gear shifts, changing the pace of your story – speeding it up or slowing it down, thus increasing the story’s tension.
· Description can serve as a transitional device, a way of linking scenes or changing time and place.
· Description can orchestrate the dance between scene and summary.
· Description can serve as a unifying thematic device, what Stanley Kunitz calls the “constellation of images” that appears and reappears in a literary work, suggesting the idea of feeling that lives beneath the story line.
· Description can provide the palette for graduations in mood and tone. Dip your brush in one description and the key darkens; in another, and sun breaks through.
What makes you keep reading? What part does description play in your book?
I like the happy medium in description. I want my senses involved, but I don't want description to drag on for three pages.
Descriptive passages can make a setting come more alive, as long as the writer doesn't get too carried away with the description. Those passages, like everything else in a story, should be important, help ground the reader, and allow the reader to feel she or he is there…not simply be added to make a word count or because the writer loves the area or did a lot of research.
Ruth, Thank you for the very informative post. It can be such a fine line to walk between enough description and too much.
Super post! Well done!
I love when I read others' works that transport me to their worlds whether imagined or real. And I love it when I can write scenes that make the reader feel as though they were there, stuck in the Florida swamps, or trying to find a way out of escape tunnels beneath a Highland castle, or trying to warm up when a winter storm throws them into darkness and bitter cold.
Great article, Ruth. I like to "lose" myself in books, too, and I hope my readers feel the same about mine.
A lot of great information.
@Calllie
@Terry Spear/Terry Lee Wilde
@ellaquinnauthor
@Maris
@VictoriaRoder
Hi – I know exactly what you mean. I want all my senses involved but not overloaded or dulled by too much of a good thing. You're right on target with striking the right balance.
I will admit that when I read reviews of my Knight of Runes the one that made me dance was the reader who said she felt she was my heroine. Yes! (arm air pump).
… Ruth
I have the book "Word Painting" – a must for the writer's shelf. I love how McClanahan touches on all the genres of writing from historical, through contemporary and into fantasy, explaining the mechanics of description necessary to make the story you're writing work. And not just physical description, but she also shows you how to develop your "voice" to keep your readers. Thanks Ruth! Great blog.
@J.Coleman
Thanks Jo. It is a great resource book. I find myself going back to ti and finding more nuggets.
… Ruth
I've been working on this.
I have the book, Word Painting, and description makes it real.
Thank you for the informative post!
@Sandy L. Rowland
I'm glad you like the book too.
… Ruth
When I began writing I thought writing was the name of the game, but it's emotion! (and rewriting until you can feel the scene). Great Post!
Really, nothing to add that the others haven't already said. Great post and thanks for the tip on the book. I'm going to go get my copy of Word Painting.
Great article and interesting comments. I rarely notice my surroundings – I just don't pay much attention to those kind of details. I'm always more interested in the big picture. this makes me a great manager but is a challenge as a writer because i know readers want these details – and I feel silly making them up. So I keep learning on how to do this.
personally I love deep, rich characters whose behavior is well motivated and conflict that is real. 023.11
Great post, Ruth:) I love descriptive writing…love reading it, and writing it:)
Thanks for the information about the book:) Another one to download!:)
Lo
@Loretta
@Louise Behiel
I think descriptive writing is difficult but so worth while.
As for not paying attention to your surroundings, you'd be surprised how much you take in that you don't realize.
I like to close my eyes, imagine I'm there and then write.
… Ruth
Thanks, Ruth. I just ordered a copy of Word Painting. I am in the process of mastering description and emotion. I love that I am no able to pinpoint the areas that need revamping.
I love a story where you can feel like the heroine and are in love with the hero. It is a grat feeling to be involved in the story and can slip away into their world.
@Paisley Kirkpatrick
I hope you find it helpful. I know I did. Slipping into a story as a character is the best part of reading.
… Ruth
Great post. I have that book Painting with Words. I should read it again, it helped me so much when I read it the first time.
Janice~
I loved this post, I am going to have to get both books.
@Hildie McQueen
I'm glad you liked the post. Both books are great resources. I find I refer to them often.
… Ruth
I love a book that pulls me in and won't let me go. I strive to write like that, but I think, I know, I have a ways to go still. Learning is part of the fun of reading for me.
I love to read something that will take and hold me in. The scenery where I am in right now just failed me to get noticed to those particular things.I am often curious in the nice images. This would make me a great writer later on yet so much challenging to any aspiring writers out there.
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