Fitting Good Descriptions into Your Writing

Descriptions. One of the hardest things to work into your writing without making it seem out of place or too long. I have a love/hate relationship with descriptions. Well, let me correct myself. I used to have a love/hate relationship with descriptions. What do I mean by that? Allow me to explain.

Descriptions used to be the hardest thing for me to write. I could stare at the wall for a long time with a blank page in front of me without ever thinking of a good way to describe the wind. Or, because it was hard, I would skip over descriptions altogether. Looking back at my first novel I finished, I can point out several instances where I failed to describe something. Like the boat, the looks of a new character who stepped into the scene, or the weapon someone held. 

Then of course, after failing to describe that important detail, I would go on to describe my main character’s hair for the fifteenth time in a very long paragraph. 😂

Okay, so don’t describe for too long and don’t just skip over descriptions, so how do you describe stuff? 

This is an important question. For this, you may want to do some research on your own. Because, again (you’re beginning to see a theme in my articles that I suggest this, right? LOL), taking a look at books can help a lot. Deciding if authors described it well or not will help you as a writer to describe things better. Oftentimes all you will need is to read one chapter then step away from the book and ask yourself these questions…

1. How well can you as the reader picture the scene? Can you picture the setting? Characters? 
2. Were there no long descriptions that lost you for a moment/broke the flow of the story? 
3. Were the important details described? 

If the answer to all of these is yes, then you’ve found yourself a good description. Study what that author has done and find out how you can do it yourself. 

Some of my takeaways…

I’ve spent a long time studying authors and how they describe things in their books and then even more time implementing that into my own writing. Over time I’ve begun to understand a good way to fit descriptions into my writing. 

It’s all about the details 

When you are writing descriptions, everything has to do with details. I can’t say it enough. Details are everything. They are the key to avoiding long paragraphs of description while still being able to get that picture into a reader’s mind. 

What does that mean exactly? Well, go back through your books and look at a chapter. It isn’t a long paragraph in modern writing that describes something, it’s more of a few words spread out throughout the chapter. 

Unless the setting or character is new to your POV character, then avoid using long paragraphs. Instead, work a word or two into your writing. A color, shape, or speed of something used as just a simple adjective can be the key to a good description. 

The nice thing about doing this, is that there are fewer limits than there are in long paragraphs. You can use several adjectives in a paragraph without readers noticing, but still get the picture across clearly. 

 See things through your character’s eyes

Your character knows best when it comes to describing something. It is better to allow them to lead. Why? 

Because the character knows which details to notice. Not that the character will just start writing them out for you. LOL But getting into their mind as the author and understanding which details they would notice will help a lot. 

For example, some people are more detail-oriented whereas some are more big-picture people. The same can be true for characters and the things they notice. 

If one character were to look at a tree, they might notice the way the bark seems rough and almost wavy. But the next might notice the bright green of the leaves. And still another might see the bird on the low branch. 

Understanding what sort of things your character notices will help a lot. 

As another example, think of your house as compared to a new building you’ve never been in before. 

You are more likely to study the new place, noticing the way the bright lights shine or the open window. Then at home, you skip over the normal details like the color of the paint or the bookshelf in the corner. 

Your character wouldn’t notice things in a familiar place as much as they would notice them in a new place. This is an especially important detail to remember when writing. Unless a character is thinking specifically about a familiar thing, they aren’t likely to describe it as much as they would describe a new place. 

(Though as a reminder, you can still fit adjectives to describe a familiar place without the reader noticing 😉) 

Leave some things for the reader to imagine

My final tip is this: to leave out some things when describing. There is no need to describe everything about what someone is wearing or the exact colors of a building. Leave certain things out for the reader to fill in the details for. You can say your character is wearing a jacket, for example, but you don’t need to describe how many pockets there are unless it is relevant to the plot or is a detail your character would notice. 

Now, there is also a balance to this. Because while leaving out some details is fine, I have seen a lot of books that leave out details about how a character looks or how the setting is. Then the book describes the details later on. This both surprises and disorients the reader. They had pictured that one character with red hair and now you said it was blonde. More than anything else, avoid doing that with everything in your power as an author. 

In conclusion…

Avoid long paragraphs of description, unless the character would notice that or is in a new place or is studying a new thing/person. Details are key when writing and fitting them in is almost essential. And don’t, under any circumstances, tell me a character’s hair color is blonde after I imagined it to be red. 🤣

Until next time, 

A.J. Syngraféas