Questions tagged [description]
Painting a picture with a thousand words.
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Knife meets eye socket question
I'm writing a story and want to immerse the readers by describing the sound of a knife being pulled out of an eye socket. I can't think of a good word. It'd be descriptive, wet, and grating. It could ...
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What are some widely understood incremental injury adjectives?
I'm looking for adjectives to describe incremental degrees of injuries of various body parts for an RPG system. They should be both intuitively understandable and rankable to an average English ...
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How do I describe a character who had a leg ripped off?
I’m a new writer writing a fantasy story. A character had a leg ripped off below the knee and I’m not sure how to describe that. It’s in a first person perspective by one of the other characters ...
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I have inadvertently made my character depressed... what should I do about it?
I have inadvertently made my character depressed. She's a minor character in my science-fantasy novel, and exists to tie together some of the plot lines.
As I wrote her, this 18yo woman turned out to ...
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x-based y phrasing descriptions
I am trying to find the proper way to describe the following: outcome-based benchmarking, outcome-based contracting, outcome-based designs, performance-based education, performance-based management, ...
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How to describe a sinister expression
I'm a noob at writing and I wanted to find out how to describe someone's face contorting into a sinister expression. I'm having a bit of trouble doing so. The most prominent features I want to focus ...
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How to I describe a kissing scene that’s off guard?
I have to write a really spicy kissing scene where the mob boss kisses a random girl who has never been kissed before, who is beyond shocked at his actions. Only to find out that he kissed her to get ...
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How to describe the appearance of POV characters in limited 3rd person POV
A limited 3rd person story is 3rd person, sure, but it is also supposed to paint the description with the perspective of the POV character. Now, I don't typically picture how I look whenever I do ...
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Describing light like water
I am currently working on writing a storyline for a text-based videogame. I am trying to describe how there is very little light coming into the room that the character is entering, as the window is ...
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Can you switch from past to present tense to expound on an action?
If the text is primarily past tense, can you briefly switch to present tense to expound on an action? An example is as follows.
She took one step before the brass bell above her door echoed a sharp ...
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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 ...
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What's the best way to describe an event in slow motion?
In my story I'm gonna have the main character's dog die. I want to make it seem like the dog's death is really quick, but the main character screaming is stretched out. What would the best way to go ...
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Need help with proper terms for a fantasy character's clothing/armor
Can someone please tell me what the white garment underneath his armor would be called in this picture? I'm trying to refer to a piece like it in my story, but I don't know the proper term for it. I'm ...
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For people of color, are there unique ways to describe emotional state through skin tone, besides 'going pale,' 'turning red,' 'looking green,' etc?
Are there some words or phrases to describe a person of color, specifically darker colors, when their skin tone changes with emotion? Like for a white person, they'd turn pale when scared or turn red ...
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"Write what you know", or, writing when you're young and ignorant
When you were raised in a remote town in Europe, there really isn't much that you've experienced.
I'm 21 and I often struggle with writing because I just do not know how 'these things' work. I can't ...
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What words can be used to describe being confused and in two minds?
What words can be used to describe being confused and in two minds? Some figures of speech or adjectives or maybe a paragraph?
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How do you portray a character stumbling into something foreign?
I want to know what I should portray when it comes for a character to come across something "foreign" or new.
For example: A magical boy from a fantasy land being flung to a modern/science-y ...
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How could I show good worldbuilding without ending up with info-dumps?
A horror story I am writing involves the protagonist in another world. It is like an isekai, but it is horror and the protagonist is trying to survive as long as possible.
The main story surrounds the ...
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How can I remove the repetition of 'the' from descriptive writing
Consider this paragraph
The twilight is small but distinctly visible. The gloomy sky is staring down at the parched roads as the storm began thundering. Gradually, the moon is crescendoing into ...
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How to describe types of hum a character uses to convey their thoughts and opinions
I have a character who struggles to put his thoughts, feelings and opinions into words - he finds words somewhat too contained and specifically defined to adequately convey what he wants to say. He ...
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How to describe when someone hesitates before speaking?
I find myself repeatedly saying "he/she hesitated" when I feel like there's something else I could say. I've been experimenting but with the character in question, all I can think of is, &...
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How to describe a werewolf attack?
In my book, the werewolves don't shape shift into humans, they're werewolves all the time. There are some werewolves that don't attack humans, but the majority does - those packs that don't live ...
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How to describe someone whose eyes sparkle mischievously?
I've been told that I'm telling instead of showing when I say my characters' eyes sparkle 'mischievously.' How do you describe something like that? I've been looking it up and trying different tricks ...
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How can I describe actions in a story format?
I am trying to create a description/story about what someone will do, for example a description of a man baking a cake, because I need to create descriptions of actions as part of my work. I know that ...
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How do you describe the sound of a body being dragged through the snow? [closed]
How to describe the sound of a body bring dragged through snow
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Music in written form
I have a very hard time describing music in my writing. There's a particular scene where two characters are dancing along to piano music. It's a nice, romantic moment where they're the only people ...
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How can I write a young adult character as very excited without sounding like a child?
I want to show my young adult main character, as being very enthusiastic and excitable about her interests, mainly I want her to make a big deal about wanting to wear her mother's ceremonial (but ...
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How do you describe/insert an "uncommon" feature?
We have the typical common hair that's black, brown, yellow, etc. And we can call them brunets, blondes, redheads, and so on.
Even with eyes. We call them blue-eyed, brown-eyed, gray, etc.
What do you ...
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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 ...
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Any tips on how to describe fighter jet designs?
I want to write a fighter jet story, kind of like Ace Combat, but because I don't have any money to borrow names from certain aircraft in real life, I thought it would be better to just make up my own ...
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How do you accurately describe a race track without using an image?
How do you accurately describe a race track without using an image?
Let's say you have this image, but you can't use it as a reference. How do you manage to exactly describe it in a way someone could ...
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Is it correct to write or say "Am I seeing the dawn in my twilight?" [closed]
Is it correct to write "Am I seeing the dawn in my twilight?"
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how do I describe magic in a fictional story? [closed]
In my writing I need to describe a character being enchanted by a spell and pulled towards a house.
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How do I describe a character tripping but regaining their balance?
In the story, my protagonist is walking in a part of town that is not taken care of. My character, at this point in time, is super tired and trips over a clump of grass growing from the sidewalk.
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Describing people in a book that is first person
I am writing a novel that is in present tense. I'm worried I'm going back and forth from present to past tense when I describe the physical characteristics of people my main character meets.
Here are ...
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Avoiding tedium and trivialisation from repeated events
I'm writing a sci-fi novel set on Earth in the recent past. In the novel, an alien giant robot destroys numerous cities in North America.
The first such occurrence, New York City, receives a lot of ...
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What is the term meaning calling a character by a described trait? [duplicate]
What is the technique called when a writer describes a character and from there forward refers to that character by one of their salient traits? For example, "The man across from her took in the ...
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How to write a protagonist in 1st POV, who is talkative?
My character is very talkative. As the narrator, how is she to balance her talkativeness in dialogue, narration, and description without making it boring, too long, or make it seem like she's dumping ...
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How can I spot if my story is being stalled or interrupted, and how do I arrange my writing so that it continues to move?
I would like for my story to continue moving, but I find that I interrupt action with details or inner thoughts, mood, emotion, etc. Hence, how can I spot an interruption in my writing that could ...
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How do I differentiate between mood, description, and action, and how do I reorganize my writing to focus on them in order to keep my writing moving?
I am trying to implement focus into my writing since I believe that is one of the many traits my writing lacks. It is not focus on the central idea, but description, action, and mood.
I have seen ...
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Dilating the beat
Consider the following sentences
She did not feel the bullet going through her skull.
vs
She did not feel the 9mm NATO Parabellum lead bullet going through her skull.
vs
She did not feel the nine ...
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The most interesting list
I want to describe the look of a room. In particular I would like for the reader to be overwhelmed by the many objects stacked on the shelves. This list of objects serves no purpose in the rest of the ...
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How to clearly convey the picture of a World War I-era car without mentioning World War I?
So I am working on a story that takes place in a setting with the aesthetics of world war I machinery and society but which does not take place in our world. Because of this, I can't just go about ...
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Characters' tone/pitch in dialogue
How does one go about showing a characters tone/pitch while talking?
For example, if someone said something that someone else doesn't believe and they reacted like:
bullsHIIt
or
whaAATt
Where the ...
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What are some ways to describe a character's clothing?
I have a hard time viewing clothing outside of the simplest descriptors. A shirt is just a shirt, shoes are simply shoes, pants, etc.
Basically, what I'm asking for is some clothing terminology?
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How would I describe the feeling of being buried alive realistically?
For context, this would be from the POV of children who are trapped in a high-rise office building during a monster attack in the city. They wouldn't have any injuries from the event; they would just ...
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Does anyone know any specific words that can be used to describe a character flying?
I feel like I've used words like "floating" and "hovering" too often, to the point of tedium.
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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 ...
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Translating analogies in a 100 year old fairy tale
I am having a hard time translating analogies and descriptions in a fairy tale written a century ago. My fear is today's children will not understand the analogy at all or misunderstand it, and as ...
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How does one go about describing subtle movements in characters actions?
I'm struggling with figuring out a way to describe subtle movements in a scene that wouldn't normally be picked up on if not shown. For example:
A character is being put in a prison cell and another
...
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