The Art of Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing is a way of putting words down on paper so that they paint a picture. Novel writing is not a visual medium, but novel writers nevertheless want readers to visualize the stories they tell. Descriptive writing is the way they achieve this.

Not everything you write should be written descriptively...

Dialogue, for example, is all about getting the readers to hear, not see, and so the advice in this article doesn't apply.

Action certainly needs to be visualized by the readers, although it is best presented with the minimum of fuss - all nouns and verbs and as little adornment as possible to slow the pace. Some of the advice below, then, applies to action sequences - not least the need to use strong details. Other parts, like the section on using similes and metaphors, can probably be ignored.

The most common use for descriptive writing is in the description of settings and characters. Here, everything below does not just apply, it is vital if you want your novel to be the best it can be.

This (very long) article is divided into four parts:

1. Descriptive Writing and Details
2. Engaging the Senses
3. Similes and Metaphors (and other Figures of Speech)
4. Worked Example

Before moving on, a couple of quick caveats...

1. Be Restrained

Always remember that descriptive writing, done well, should never go over the top. If your descriptions are too long, too ornate, too flowery, you will have produced purple prose - the sure sign of an amateur at work.

If you manage to paint vivid pictures using the minimum of words and without significantly disrupting the flow of the story, you will be writing like a professional.

2. Mix Description with Action

Try not to let description in your novel stand in isolation from the rest of the writing. You will probably begin a scene with a passage of description - of the character or the setting or both - but try to keep this brief.

Then, as the scene warms up, you can pause the talk and the action momentarily to provide further snippets of description. Not enough to break the flow, but enough to remind the reader that the novel's events are not taking place in a void.

If you do keep the description isolated from the action, it looks something like this...

• Character enters a room
• Paragraph describing the room
• Character closes the door behind them and walks in

It's like the writer has pressed the "pause" button. A better way to describe the setting here is like this...

• Character enters a room
• One or two short sentences of description showing the character's initial impression - dust floating through the shafts of sunlight, the smell of wet dog
• Character closes the door behind them and takes a seat, describing the grease on the door handle and the broken spring in the couch
• A few lines of dialogue with another character
• A brief pause in the dialogue while the character listens to a log spitting in the fire
• A few more lines of dialogue

And so on. Evocative writing is essential in a novel, but it should never overwhelm the action. Having short, sharp bursts of it in between the action is ideal.

Now it is time to look at the first of the four categories I want to discuss: descriptive writing and details...