Writing Descriptions of Places and People

Writing description is an important part of any kind of writing. It can help the reader visualise what you were thinking of when writing the words down. It is one of the best tools in the writer's arsenal as you can in essence "paint" people and places with words.

Things to Remember:

• Don't write huge chunks of descriptions at once. Today's reader is a lot more impatient than those in the past, write concise descriptions that sum up what you wanted to convey in as few a words as possible, also this will pace your story a lot better and keep your reader on tenterhooks as they read on to find out what happens.
• Use descriptions to further the story. I read a beautiful point on http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/description.shtml about the use of descriptions in A Canticle for Leibowitz in which the main character notices changes within their world and these are described by his inner monologue to the audience.
• This brings us on to the next point, write descriptions of things that your characters would notice. This may sound obvious but writing a description of a building that isn't important to the story is entirely unnecessary.
• Don't let description get in the way of actually finishing your story. A first draft, where you get down on paper, all the pertinent information will be easier to go back to, and add in descriptions than something the other way around.