Questions tagged [description]
Painting a picture with a thousand words.
381 questions
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Is it considered vulgar to use "massive" to describe female breast size?
I’m currently working on the outlines for my main characters, and my female lead has very specific features and measurements. Breast size and buttocks shape and size has always been the most difficult ...
CommunityBot
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Trouble finding description of the sound an oar makes in a crew boat [closed]
Hi Im having trouble describing the sound the oars make in this video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xn55OXxqJ8) when ignoring the rattling of the boat. I am thinking something like a "pft, put&...
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How to describe a character dealing with a betrayal from one of their closest friends?
The character who gets betrayed is my main character, who is practically left to die by her closest childhood friend. My MC is the type of character to wholeheartedly believes and trusts in her ...
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What's the literary term for saying you "see fireworks" when there are no fireworks?
So, like the question says, basically. Say a character kisses someone and the writing says "she saw fireworks exploding behind her closed eyes", what is that? Because it seems like it comes ...
CommunityBot
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How do you find the right rhetorical device to describe the towering trees in a primeval forest?
During my trip, I visited the primitive forest and was deeply shocked by the scenery in the forest: the trees were strong and straight, and the environment was full of vitality and quiet. Therefore, I ...
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How to write a knee injury?
I am writing a story and at some point my character, while in battle, injuries his knee and is out of comission for a long time after that. He then becomes frustrated, feels left behind, and, yeah, ...
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Avoiding repetition when there are two unidentified individuals
The tall figure was overwhelmingly tall. It stood in the corner of the
room. The skinny figure right beside him sat on a chair. It wasn't
moving at all. The tall figure moved to the opposite side ...
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I need help writing a murder scene in first person [closed]
So the chapter starts like this:
I continued to sip my coffee as he choked on his own blood. It was bitter - both the coffee and the look permanently etched onto his face.
I want to write a seamless ...
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Difficulty describing a complex image in a single sentence
I am having difficulty explaining that the sun evaporated the fog that had brushed up against the blooming hills. When I add "with spectacular wildflower blooms", it sounds as if the sun ...
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I want to describe a young man sitting astride on a chair, leaning his forearms on the top of the back
I want to describe a young man sitting astride on a chair, leaning his forearms on the top of the back. I am aware that I am focusing too much on the mechanics of the posture, and I will deal with the ...
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How do you describe someone who's talking while brushing their teeth?
I don't think there's a specific word for that, so how would you describe it?
The scene is that someone shouts something while they're in the bathroom, brushing their teeth. It's still intelligible, ...
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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?
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I need help writing a scene or experience about air being knocked out of you
How would you write a scene of someone trying to breath again after getting the wind knocked out of them?
I am trying to describe the experience and how your body reacts physically while your brain ...
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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 ...
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Which Is Clearer: 'Being pressed' or 'Pressed'?
Consider these two sentences:
[1] Being pressed against the wall, he struggled to break free.
[2] Pressed against the wall, he struggled to break free.
I've recently spent some time reading grammar ...
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Describing exclaimations from a group
My character, an old woman, has been knocked down, injured and can't get up. There is a crowd of people, spread across a park, who all witnessed the accident. From her view, at ground level, she is ...
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How to refer to alternate versions of a character in a non-sci-fi way?
I'm writing a story featuring a plot element which is a variation on A Christmas Carol involving the multiverse. A character is escorted to other timelines, where she looks at where those versions of ...
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How can I find good words to describe emotions or states of mind?
For example, if I struggle with finding good words to describe being confused and in two minds, what techniques can I use to find figures of speech or adjectives?
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What are good words to refer to the condition of objects?
In RPG games objects such as weapons or armor have a certain durability represented by a number. For example a sword has 100/100 Durability. After it becomes 0/100 it means the object is broken.
I ...
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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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What's Essential In A Combat Scene?
I've just been reading a bunch of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. Although they were the most enjoyable read I'd had in ages I always found myself skimming long segments that described involved ...
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How can I describe characters based on real world races like "Asian" or "Indian" in a fantasy world?
In a fantasy world where things like Asia don’t exist how would you get the point across that a person may be a pale Asian person with straight black hair and blue eyes and a heart shaped face rather ...
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How to write about characters and places you aren't personally familiar with?
What do I need to do, as an Indian writer, if I want to make British or Americans the main characters in my book, and make the whole story revolve around them in any other country?
In general, is it ...
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How to describe a character accepting congratulation in a modest, self-deprecating fashion
I am trying to describe how my protagonist reacts to congratulations from a friend about a genuinely significant career achievement. My protagonist is modest and self-deprecating by nature, and I am ...
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Trouble describing people standing around three of four sides of a rectangle?
As the title says, I am having trouble describing a group standing around 3/4ths of a rectangle. This is what I have written The students stood along the sides and far side of the stage, creating a ...
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How do you describe a woman's lips without seeming cliche?
What is the best way to describe a woman's lips without being cliche? I can't help but think "pillow" or "pouty" but that's wrong. I looked through all the synonyms for words like ...
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How do I draw attention to a girl's chest without making it overly lewd?
So, I have a group of main characters, and the current viewpoint character is going to introduce a... very well-endowed character. How do I write this so that I get the point across that she's that ...
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How does one describe a setting that is going to be a central location in a story?
I have a location in my story that is a key central hub which much of the interaction surrounds. An example of this might be the bar in Cheers or Greendale Community College in Community. I want to ...
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How to go about describing an anthro protagonist?
I'm working on a rewrite of a story of mine. One of the improvements I'm trying to make is avoiding the block of physical description text, and trying to use more show-don't-tell. So far, all I've ...
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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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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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Need resources to assist with describing ordinary things
When writing I've found that I have trouble describing ordinary things. For instance if I want to describe a chair I'll spend lots of time hunting down resources like this chair diagram, using google ...
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Describing paralyzing fear in the first person
I would appreciate some suggestions that would help me describe intense terrifying fear that my main character feels when the airplane he is on suddenly goes into a seemingly out of control dive that ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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 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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