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Printed from https://writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/107487-Description-Elements-of-Fiction-Writing
ASIN: 0898799082
ID #107487
Product Type: Book
Reviewer: ElaineElaine Author Icon
Review Rated: ASR
Amazon's Price: $ 25.66
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Summary of this Book...
There's nothing better to introduce the topic of description than by giving you the first two paragraphs of Monica Wood’s introduction:
 
Description is not so much an element of fiction as its very essence; it is the creation of mental images that allow readers to fully experience a story. When you write a story, you offer an account of a chain of events, the characters that inhabit those events, and the places in which those events occur. How you describe those events, characters, and places affects your readers’ perceptions.
 
Every technical decision you make during the writing of a new story—from the length of your sentences to your choice of point of view—becomes part of that story’s description. The statement “John showed up with a gun” describes an event. “John arrived, pistol glinting in his hand” describes the same event with a little more pizzazz. Your instinct for jazzing up a plain declarative sentence has repercussions, however, because the rewrite describes something beyond a simple action. For starters, the rewrite gives us a bit of atmosphere—“glinting” suggests light and gives the gun an aura of menace. Second, it tells us something about the observer, who uses the more accurate “pistol,” and is aware of the “glinting.” Third, it suggests something about John’s state of mind: a man with a glinting pistol must surely be aching to pull the trigger, whereas a man who simply shows up with a gun could have any number of intentions. The mental images in the rewrite are profoundly different from those in the original sentence. Even the smallest decisions about description can affect a story in countless subtle ways.
 
CHAPTERS
 
Introduction
 
Chapter One: Details, Details
         The telling detail
         How details drive the story
         Adding details in later drafts
         Engaging the senses
         Simile and Metaphor
         The virtue of restraint
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Two: Showing and Telling
         What's the difference
         Scene and Narrative
         How to "Tell"
         How to "Show"
         When to use narratives, when to use scene
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Three: Description and Forward Motion
         How stories move
         Creating context
         Forward motion and physical description
         Flashbacks and their problems
         Flash-forwards
         A word on the set piece
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Four: Description and Dialogue
         Types of Dialogue
         Conversations in Space
         Overdescribing dialogue
         Implying dialogue
         Implying setting
         Description by omission
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Five: Description and Point of View
         First-person point of view
         Second-person point of view
         Third-person omniscient point of view
         Third-person limited pont of view
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Six: Description and Style
         Choosing description style
         When content and style contrast
         A case for minimalism
         A case for maximalism
         Avoiding sentimentaility and melodrama
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Seven: Description and Setting
         Details that tell a story
         The setting's history
         Settings large and small
         Problems with "actual" places
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Eight: Special Description Problems
         Describing animals
         Describing weather
         Describing emotion
         Describing sound
         Wrap-up
 
Chapter Nine: Tips and Tricks
 
Created Jan 28, 2004 at 5:50pm • Submit your own review...

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Printed from https://writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/107487-Description-Elements-of-Fiction-Writing