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3 Media Press
DESCRIPTION: ENHANCE YOUR STORYLINE
DESCRIPTION: ENHANCE YOUR STORYLINE
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What exactly is Description? Is it just supplying colors, furnishings, backdrops? Or is it more?
For some of us, it's the most difficult part of spinning a tale. I confess, I had to work to tone up my descriptions when I first fed words into a keyboard. And, though my first editor had already gone to contract on a manuscript, one of the things she requested that I do in the way of changes was to add in more description. "Don't put it in via long paragraphs, but shorter ones dropped in to give the reader a visual and some breathing space," she told me. "Your plot is galloping at a fast space. They need a spot to rest briefly."
That was the last time any editor requested more words. Fortunately, they weren't deleting the ones I gave them, either. Now I have readers gushing about my word choices in descriptions, which seems to say I learned that early lesson well.
In DESCRIPTION: ENHANCE YOUR STORYLINE we work on YOUR ability to dazzle readers in the same way.
Look at this as if you were at a play. Someone had to design the backdrop, all of the moving parts of the stage, they had to decorate rooms or create the impression that the players were in a barnyard or in a mining camp or...well in a dim, dark neighborhood in mid-20th century New York City or 19th century London. They had to dress the actors. The script had to tell the actors what their voices should convey as well as the words they would say. There are marks on the floor telling them where to stand for the spotlight to hit them just right, or a trap door to open beneath them so that their fall from sight would be safe.
In movies they even add to these elements with music, which is difficult for us to do on the written page, but we can certainly let our readers know what the weather is like, what the cloth or the sand or a fist feels like striking a character. What the forest, the meadow, or the basement smells like.
The play couldn't do that. The movie couldn't do that. But we can do it with words.
Description. It's subtle, it's powerful.
For some of us, it's the most difficult part of spinning a tale. I confess, I had to work to tone up my descriptions when I first fed words into a keyboard. And, though my first editor had already gone to contract on a manuscript, one of the things she requested that I do in the way of changes was to add in more description. "Don't put it in via long paragraphs, but shorter ones dropped in to give the reader a visual and some breathing space," she told me. "Your plot is galloping at a fast space. They need a spot to rest briefly."
That was the last time any editor requested more words. Fortunately, they weren't deleting the ones I gave them, either. Now I have readers gushing about my word choices in descriptions, which seems to say I learned that early lesson well.
In DESCRIPTION: ENHANCE YOUR STORYLINE we work on YOUR ability to dazzle readers in the same way.
Look at this as if you were at a play. Someone had to design the backdrop, all of the moving parts of the stage, they had to decorate rooms or create the impression that the players were in a barnyard or in a mining camp or...well in a dim, dark neighborhood in mid-20th century New York City or 19th century London. They had to dress the actors. The script had to tell the actors what their voices should convey as well as the words they would say. There are marks on the floor telling them where to stand for the spotlight to hit them just right, or a trap door to open beneath them so that their fall from sight would be safe.
In movies they even add to these elements with music, which is difficult for us to do on the written page, but we can certainly let our readers know what the weather is like, what the cloth or the sand or a fist feels like striking a character. What the forest, the meadow, or the basement smells like.
The play couldn't do that. The movie couldn't do that. But we can do it with words.
Description. It's subtle, it's powerful.
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