That is the purpose of description, you know, to suck your reader into your mind’s eye, and spew out for their benefit exactly what you’re seeing. Some people are really good at it. And some people, well, they merely suck. Which are you?
Me? I fall somewhere in the middle, somewhere between not bad and mediocre. The thing is that doing description well isn’t all that easy. Rarely do exactly the right words come. Unless something is fresh in my mind and was an overwhelming experience, I have…to…think…hard…which is HARD. I’ve got to put myself back in the moment and force myself to focus. What am I seeing? Green grass? What shade of green? Actually, make that what shades since grass, like everything else that’s organic, is composed of multiple hues. The old football field was worn down to the nubs of scrubby gray-green grass.
People who are good at description are called poets. They can with a few words draw pictures that describe the both scene and the mood. People who aren’t good at description are called screenwriters. INT. DAY. OLD HOUSE.
If you’re neither a poet nor a screenwriter, you still have to hone your descriptive sensibilities. Here’s one way to do it:
Exercise: Pick a photo, one of your own or something you’ve seen, that in some way “speaks” to you. Now describe it. Take the essence of what it is about the photo and make us see it too. Then–if you like–email both photo and description to me: jane(at)midlifebloggers.com.
You’ll get the benefit of a little private tutoring on one of the pillars of good writing.
Last chance to vote for Blogher’10s Room of Your Own. Polling closes on Sunday and right now, it doesn’t look as if Upping The Ante: Moving From Just Blogging to Creative Non-fiction is going to make the cut.
Jane Gassner
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