Writing.Com General Discussion

Hi Sabrina Lacroix ,

You've received a lot of great advice so far, and what I have to offer is a bit of a counterpoint to 1UppyEar 's advice. Her suggestion of overwriting then scaling back can be a great technique for some people. Personally, I struggle a bit with that because I come from a journalism and screenwriting background, so I've had the idea of word economy drilled into me over and over again, to the point where I often don't write enough description the first time through and then have to go back and add more in later! I tend to write visually (what's seen and heard) and forget the other three senses (smell, taste, touch)... so if I have to go back and add in more detail, it's a good bet that details about one of those three senses are where I need to start. If you find yourself focusing on only a couple of the sensory inputs, you might consider reminding yourself to focus on all five to get a fuller description out of your action and scenes.

The other thing I'd say about your original problem with "being descriptive enough" is that how much is enough and how much is too much are often subjective decisions. One reader or writer might think two hundred words of description about the details of a room are way to few while others might think those same two hundred words are too much description! To complicate things further, the level of description you need to use may change depending on the particular situation. If a setting is very important to the story, you probably want to spend more time describing it in detail than you would an unimportant or minor location that appears less frequently in the narrative.

Make sure you're writing the level of detail and description you're comfortable with. Once you've decided that you need more description than what you're currently getting on the page, any of the advice you've already been given or my suggestion above could help. Give them all a try and see what works for you and what doesn't!

Hope this helps!


Jeff


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