Questions tagged [description]
Painting a picture with a thousand words.
273
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1answer
63 views
Resources to describe medieval clothing from different cultures?
I realise this may not be the best place for this question, but I'm not sure where else to ask. I'd like to describe specific clothing from various societies existing when feudalism was still around, ...
4
votes
7answers
862 views
Alternative to “it is commonly said”
I have a sentence I am trying to write that just doesn't feel right. It currently reads "It is commonly said that X, but the truth is that Y." The second part feels okay, but the first part feels like ...
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2answers
64 views
Are there any good alternatives to “a fire inside” of someone?
I'm trying to express the idea of a character undergoing a realisation, thus feeling an idea along the lines of a "fire being ignited inside of him".
However, I was wondering, are there any better ...
0
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3answers
87 views
How can I describe an incredible release of power, realistically [closed]
In my writing, a goddess is removed from her position as a god and reduced to a human. (See my previous question) At the moment of the loss of power huge amounts of energy would be released into the ...
-1
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2answers
139 views
Where to draw the line between bloody and purely repulsive?
Violence and gore are an integral part of my story. However, I can usually keep the focus on the emotions, and the reactions, rather than the description of the injury.
My problem comes with one of ...
0
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1answer
49 views
How to Describe Topography
I have an image in my mind but I can't describe the topography, so I would always repeat, "grounds", "a little elavation", "inside the forest","some mounds,"surrounded by houses", is there any ...
4
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3answers
154 views
When you can't even draw a stick man…? (concept art)
Good day all. Hope the writing muses are with you all.
I was wondering what helps you to imagine details in a scene? I can't say that I'm a detailed oriented person so what I find acceptable as a ...
26
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12answers
6k views
How do I define smells I have never experienced?
I am a lifelong writer, who was also born without an ability to smell. I have been trained to engage the reader by applying the five senses, or as many of the five as is practical without becoming ...
4
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2answers
216 views
Describing shapes and objects
While I absolutely agree, that descriptions should be experienced through the narrator's / protagonist's eyes in terms of personal involvement, I oftentimes find myself puzzled in describing the basic ...
3
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2answers
102 views
How Do I Define Smells Of A World With Anosmia? [duplicate]
I am a lifelong writer, who was also born without an ability to smell. I have been trained to engage the reader by applying the five senses, or as many of the five as is practical without becoming ...
0
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1answer
100 views
How to write mishearing/mispronouncing without lying to the reader?
Sometimes the plot requires communication to partially break down between characters. A misheard or mispronounced word can have great consequences, after all. Often people aren't even aware it ...
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4answers
414 views
How do I describe something vividly without being purple?
I feel that the following example from Rosa Luxemburg is good at describing my goal. Despite using "complicated" words it doesn't come off as pretentious or edgy, but it still manages to give off the ...
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3answers
253 views
I abstain from using concise words in my writing, so as to “show” instead of “tell”. Is this bad writing?
Instead of explaining this whole practice, I'll rather give an example. In a scene in my book, there is this character. This character is pompous and arrogant. I describe their gait shortly after ...
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2answers
85 views
Setting exposition vs scene descriptions
If my main character goes to a new building – let's say in the beggining of a short story – and I describe the facade and the design of the building, is this exposition (i.e. information that is not ...
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2answers
206 views
Can overwriting be made to look intentional from a first-person narrative?
I am an aspiring author, trying to get my 80,000-word traditionally published, though I will self-publish it if that doesn't work out.
this article suggests that we avoid it altogether.
I've used ...
6
votes
2answers
268 views
Should you write character description points in bulk or spread them out?
I've heard a lot of people saying they skip descriptions if they are written as one bulk list, but others say it's important that we let the reader know what the character looks like and include all ...
2
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3answers
103 views
Do we simplify descriptions when they sound weird? [closed]
The woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small wallet ... The
woman said as she pulled a small coin out of a small box she
opened/used earlier.
I am wondering if "opened" or "used" is ...
6
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3answers
2k 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 ...
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2answers
182 views
How to convey the anatomy of a humanoid race? [closed]
I am writing a extra-terrestrial high fantasy novel. The story is completely set in an alien world. No visits from Earth and no visits to Earth.
My characters are humanoids, who look like elves, ...
18
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7answers
2k views
Detail vs. filler
How can I minimise the "filler" text that I end up writing when fleshing out a scene with detail?
An appropriate level of detail seems to me to be a fundamental requirement for good prose. Whatever I ...
6
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4answers
2k 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 ...
4
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4answers
100 views
How to eliminate standoff between “Lengthy” vs “Concision”?
Often while writing a software requirement/change-request documentation, I need to include the quoted requirements descriptively, the impacted modules, the changes provided both in UI and in logic. ...
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2answers
177 views
How do we end a description properly?
Sometimes, I have trouble coming up with a way to end a description properly, especially one that's at the very end of a chapter. What are some of the things you can do, especially when the ...
18
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5answers
2k views
Spicing up a moment of peace
In the ever swinging tone of a novel, one may wish to show a moment of peace amidst all the chaos. In my novel it happens a few times, most notably when characters are travelling across vast natural ...
8
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3answers
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
4
votes
1answer
92 views
A pulse, a throb, and a beat
I wrote a passage where one of my characters heard beats, (i.e., the sound) then he found the beating object and, when he held it in his hand, it started throbbing like a heart, (i.e., the feeling). ...
4
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2answers
431 views
Describing weighing an object in hand [closed]
A person holds a stone object in one hand.
They throw it up and down in the air,
in that hand, a few times,
to judge the weight/feel/impact of the object.
Does this particular physical action have ...
3
votes
2answers
288 views
Job description for my employment reference
I've canceled my job to move on. Now I was asked how I want my Job description for my employment reference.
My first draft was one full page... This is too much. Now I've reduced the long version to ...
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2answers
57 views
geographic description of coastal rock formation [closed]
Hello masters of geographic eloquence,
A rock arch bridges across to a rock formation
seen in the screen right of the image/photograph.
It's not an independent 'island'.
What word(s) best describe ...
8
votes
6answers
737 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 ...
2
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3answers
2k views
Is it stylistically sound to use onomatopoeic words?
I'm writing a non-comedic fantasy novel, and I find myself using onomatopoeic words, like "SLAM!" and "TWISH" (for the shooting of arrows). To my knowledge, onomatopoeic words are almost only used in ...
18
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8answers
3k views
How to describe POV characters?
I want to describe my first person perspective character who's narrating without doing the Wattpad "mirror scene." How would I go about this?
4
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5answers
855 views
Should fiction mention song names and iPods?
In my novel, the protagonist is depressed. In the story which is in my mind...
The autumn leaves were falling as I was sitting alone and Gary Jules' "Mad World" was ringing in my iPod.
The ...
3
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1answer
90 views
How do we follow up a description within a descriptive text with another description?
How do we follow up a description within a descriptive text with another description? Let's say you mention A and B in the first sentence, and then follow up with a long description of B, how do you ...
18
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6answers
5k views
Is it bad to describe a character long after their introduction?
I have a tendency to forget to describe character's appearance. But I always describe them, though often a little while after their introduction. So, how long after someone's introduction is "...
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1answer
143 views
Should we avoid “nonsensical” or “unclear” metaphors?
Should we avoid "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphors? I am not sure if this is a case of "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphor, but sometimes you have certain phrases that doesn't seem to be suited for ...
5
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3answers
1k views
A flower's head or heart?
I’m currently writing a story and one of my characters is a butterfly. In one of the scenes, she manages to run away from a bunch of hungry lizards and hides into a flower; let’s say a Zinnia.
When ...
12
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9answers
2k views
How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world?
As I've already mentioned, I'm working on a sci-fi novel.
One of the main feelings that I wanted to represent when I started is the sense of a vast, empty, artificial world, mostly cold and uncaring ...
asked Jun 2 '19 at 17:54
Liquid - Reinstate Monica
15.4k3 gold badges41 silver badges110 bronze badges
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3answers
207 views
What's wrong with impersonal and lifeless descriptions in a novel? [closed]
It feels like there is something wrong with using impersonal descriptions in fiction. But what is it?
As an example, I'm unhappy with the following passage I wrote, because the descriptions aren't ...
13
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5answers
8k views
Writing “hahaha” versus describing the laugh
When posting an excerpt of my book on a critiquing site, someone commented on my use of "hahaha" inside the dialogue instead of just having a laughing verb after or before it. They said it ...
3
votes
1answer
91 views
How do we properly manage transitions within a descriptive section? [closed]
I wrote the following:
She invited him to look out the window, which he did. He looked out of
the gray window and saw a field of green vegetables under a lush blue
sky. Children were playing in ...
36
votes
10answers
9k views
Protagonist's race is hidden - should I reveal it?
I'm currently on the fourth draft of a novel I'm writing, which features two protagonists. One of them, is, in my mind, black. I say, "in my mind" because at no point in the story do I ever explicitly ...
3
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2answers
185 views
How can I emphasize the horror of a ritual without getting too overly graphic?
A person is born with a certain amount of mana, which increases with age and peaks at a certain point. Individuals are born with all the mana they will ever have, but it can be refined with practice ...
3
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2answers
234 views
In third-person limited POV, what can be described?
In 3rd person limited, when the protagonist is present in a scene, can the narrator describe something in a scene that the protagonist cannot see?
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11answers
6k views
A poker game description that does not feel gimmicky
I'm writing a scene in which four characters play a high-stakes poker game. So far my narrator has been an omniscient third person, who just does not wish to enter into the characters' heads.
I ...
4
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3answers
258 views
Creating character imagery without describing their physical looks
This is more for my own curiosity than anything else but I was wondering if when reading about a character with no specified gender and no description of their looks, does the choice of words used to ...
2
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1answer
73 views
Descriptive Writing [duplicate]
When writing, is it more description (adjective, adverbs, imagery, etc.) the better? I have been told that there is a point where descriptions just clutters a story. How do I know when to stop? In the ...
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2answers
538 views
How to describe a fist bump explosion?
I'm having trouble describing a fist bump explosion in my story. I can't just say "they did a fist bump explosion," because everyone may not know exactly what that looks like. Googling doesn't ...
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3answers
141 views
How do I differentiate characters in first person POV when the narrator doesn't know them yet?
Okay, so two women are in a bar and I'm telling the story from one of the women's POV. Two guys come in and the women are watching/listening to them from a distance. They don't know their names or ...
13
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5answers
2k views
Describing a person. What needs to be mentioned?
When describing the physical features of my more important characters, I often don't add much. I of course describe important features, especially if they will be relevant in the story. For example ...
