how can i get better at description?

The description is something that gets in the way of many authors. Why? Well, because it's so darn hard to write. And no wonder. If you're not careful, descriptive sequences can become static, even dull. Writing action and dialogue is so much more fun. On top of that, the description incorporates so many elements. It doesn't just cover describing the setting -- it also involves descriptions of the characters' clothes and appearance, the "props" your characters use, the weather, and so forth.

How bad is a bad description? Think of a bad description as being like that teacher who droned on and on and put the class to sleep. A good description is more like the teacher who got students involved by using anecdotes and making the class interactive. You don't want the descriptive passages in your story to put your readers to sleep, do you?

Avoid Huge Lumps of Description

In the past, authors could get away with including long, detailed descriptions in their stories. There's an infamous anecdote about a penny dreadful called Varney the Vampire. The author couldn't decide what happened in the next installment, so he interrupted the story to send all his characters off to the park or the zoo. The story picked up again in the next installment. This problem wasn't limited to the penny dreadfuls. Many famous novels of this period came to a complete stop while the author described something (such as a cityscape, a history, or even an entire profession) for a chapter or two.

Unless they're seeking out writers known for lyrical descriptive passages, today's readers wouldn't put up with that sort of thing. They don't want to sit and read several pages about a park outing that had nothing to do with the story, or about the workings of the fireplace in a Medieval castle. They have better things to do with their time -- and they want to read a story, not a travelogue.

Make Description an Active Part of the Story

To make your stories more interesting, you must find ways to blend the description into the story. Descriptions that just sit there are generally known as "narrative lumps." Like lumps on proverbial logs, they sit there and do little to your story. Send those lumps to the gym and make them work out. They can set the scene, move the plot, set the mood, foreshadow events, give us a sense of character, whatever they have to do to get the ball (or log) rolling.

The great thing about using descriptions in combination with action is that you can cut the description down into palatable pieces.

Want to describe the heroine's living room or bedroom? Then describe it as a part of a scene full of tension, such as an argument, or during the love scene. Blend the description with action. The same goes for describing the characters. Something as simple as "He picked up the invitation with his slender fingers" is more exciting than "She noticed that he had slender fingers."

Don't forget to trust in the intelligence of your audience. You don't have to spell everything out for them. You can make them figure out what something, or someone, looks like by dropping hints. Early in Walter Miller, Jr.'s classic post-apocalyptic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, a monk realizes for the first time that the pope's cassock is getting threadbare and that the carpet in the pope's audience room is worn. Miller uses description to clue the reader in on this world and to mark changes in the way the character is viewing the world around him.

Describe What Your Characters Would Notice

Unless you're writing an omniscient viewpoint, chances are that you are filtering the setting (and background) through the eyes of your characters. This will be the case whether you are writing first person or third person limited stories. In the Miller example above, the monk noticed that the pope's cassock was worn because it was something out of place.

Let's go back to the office building with the fancy lobby. If your heroine has been in that office building dozens of times, she will only give it a passing glance. Unless something has changed or something usual is going on. Then she will notice it. For example, she might not take much notice of the lovely fountain in the center of the lobby, but she would notice if the fountain wasn't working or if the building manager had changed the color of the water because of a holiday, or if the hero was standing in the fountain and fishing for quarters.

You should probably avoid stopping the flow of your story to tell your readers all about how nice the hero's castle is or how important the rain forest is. I've seen stories that do so, and even if the setting is pretty, the result of the story isn't pretty. Some authors can get away with this. If you're one of them, then go for it, but at the same time, always keep your readers in mind. Do they want to read a ramble about the rain forest? Or do they want to know what happens next?

Words, Words, Words

Use strong, active, concrete writing words when writing descriptions. The stronger the writing, the better the description. Use concrete details -- such as the detail about the cold ale trickling down Zara's chest. Nouns and verbs are your friends. Adjectives and adverbs can be your friends, or your enemies, depending on how you use them.

What should you avoid? One of the most important things to keep in mind is that you should avoid adjectives and similar "writing sins." Yes, I know "adjectives" isn't a real word -- but it should be in the dictionary because so many writers suffer from it. Adjectives refer to using too many adjectives. Some writers are notorious for piling on adjectives. Not to mention adverbs, weak qualifiers such as "somewhat," and so forth. Using them in any part of the story weakens your writing. Using them in your descriptions risks putting the readers to sleep.

Use All the Senses

Most writers tend to concentrate on sight and sound. This is natural as those are the main ways in which we observe the world. However, you can really bring a scene to life by including the other senses. The sense of smell is an important one. What's a Western romance without the smell of leather? Of course, don't forget the sense of touch -- very important in a romance, even when you aren't writing a love scene. Taste is harder to include as humans don't tend to go around tasting things unless they're eating, but be sure to include it during love scenes.

Just because sight and sound are the most commonly used senses, that doesn't mean you have to make them, well, common. Find some new way to describe the things your characters see and hear. For example, don't fall back on the old cliches about the color of your characters' eyes -- invent new phrases that are so powerful they become cliches in the future! Also, don't forget to describe their voices or the other sounds they hear. Try listening to people talking on the radio or listening to people on TV without looking at the picture, just to get an idea of the nuances of voice.

Fit the Description to the Type of Story

If you're writing an action-oriented romance, too much description will get in the way of the pace. James Bond isn't going to stop in the middle of skiing away from gun-toting spies to ponder the beauty of the Alps. He's going to get away from them.

On the other hand, description will be a more important part of many slower-paced stories. If the book is about a hero coming to his hometown to lick his wounds after a divorce, we want to know what the area looks like and why it's so important to him. Also, a spooky paranormal tale might use description to build up the sense of unease -- for example, you might linger on descriptions of dark hallways in the old mansion and hint that there are ghosts there.

Avoid Excessive Name-dropping

First, you should know that it's all right to use brand names in stories. There are a few basic rules: 1) get the trademark correct; 2) don't use the trademark in a generic or incorrect sense, and 3) Don't portray the product in a disparaging light.

However, while using trademarks is all right, using too many brand names is over-the-top and annoying. Unless you're writing chick lit about a brand-obsessed heroine, then don't waste valuable narrative telling the reader about your heroine's designer clothing, designer perfumes, expensive car, and designer pets. Some books include so many brand names that readers begin to wonder if the writer is getting kickbacks for product placement.

Don't avoid brand names altogether, however. Using brand names can be a good way to provide the reader with a quick concrete description. Does your hero drive a Jaguar? Or does he drive a VW bus? Right away, those are two very different heroes.

Don't Let Description Hang You Up during a First Draft

If you're not comfortable with writing a description, don't let it get in your way when you're writing the first draft. Remember, you can always go back and add it later. If you have any critique partners, however, you might want to warn them that your early drafts won't have all of the details built-in.

This technique doesn't work for all writers. Some writers must have the description down-pat, or they won't be able to continue. However, if you think it might work for you, try it out. This technique has an added advantage -- if you change any aspects of your setting in midstream, you won't have as much rewriting to do.

By perusing elegantly composed books and by composing frequently so you improve at it. In case you're under the mixed up impression that there's some sorcery equation that will promptly improve your capacity to be graphic, presently is a decent an ideal opportunity to surrender that thought.

In my recent novel the two protagonists meet someone who impresses them for his symmetry:  1.5 meters tall and 1.5 meters circumference.

Instead of trying to describe something or someone, show how people react:

Bad writing:  Mary rushed through the door; she was always late for everything.

Better writing: Jerry glanced at his watch as his sister Mary burst through the door.  He wondered what her excuse would be this time. Unexpected traffic?  Alarm didn't go off?  Or something more creative, like abducted by aliens?

Bad writing:  Emily was plain looking and unstylish.

Better writing:  Emily certainly didn't turn the heads of many men on her daily walk to work, though a few people did notice her sweater, which was an alarming shade of electric green and at least three sizes too big.  Bad writing: It had been a large, beautiful house, but these days it had fallen into disrepair.   

Better writing: Olivia felt bad for the old house on the corner. With its turrets and dormers, the Victorian had once been the jewel of the neighborhood.  These days, however, the neighborhood children were fond of daring one another to run up and touch the front door of the now dilapidated structure, then running back to the relative safety of the sidewalk before they could be spirited inside.  

The best way to give description is through the eyes of the character and using the right words. Less is more. Try to weave character, theme and plot into description and make statements concrete. Example:

"A boy walked down the street." What does that tell you about anything this book is about. 

If I said: "A boy in armour limped down the street." It gives you hooks. Why would a child be dressed in armour? Are children fighting a war, why? Is this place so dangerous people need armour as protection? It tells us a war is going on (plot). You can expand more and more, so you're telling more and more but in an interesting way. Telling and showing is a good place to start but sometimes you have no choice but to just tell the reader and using character is a great way to do that.

Tell ABOUT something.

A, read a lot more, and B, pay close attention to MsBittner's really first-class post.

There are a lot of techniques that can cumulatively improve description. Show-don't-tell is a favorite theme for English teachers to harp on, but not very many of them can really make student writers understand the difference. I suspect many don't really get it themselves.

The author has to decide what's less important, and therefore okay to tell, and what matters more, in which case it should be shown. How? Get inside the character's mind and body and go through the experience with her.

Technically, there’s nothing wrong with just stating the facts: Mina's car wouldn't start, so she took the bus to work. It was crowded and stopped so often she arrived late.

But if the bus trip to work either advances the plot or illuminates Mina's character, take the reader along, starting when the car won't start. Make sure you share with the reader not just what can be seen, heard, etc. but what's going on in her thoughts, her emotions, and all that. Maybe her boss will be cool with it if she's late--or maybe she'll be fired. Maybe she thinks she's too good to ride the bus with the poor people who don't own cars. Maybe she's afraid of the other passengers.

Another technique is to select a single thing to describe that represents the whole, letting your reader imagine the rest. Did Mina's taillight break so long ago there's rust under the red tape she used to cover the exposed bulb? Are her pink suede shoes gorgeous and utterly impractical on this snowy day?

Take care not to waste words choreographing ordinary movements, which is both telling and boring. If Mina's lying on the sofa until she answers the doorbell, don't walk us through her motions to do that.

And of course you read, not just the regular way but pausing to study how other authors handle description. Literally stop reading and see how much detail they use when there's a new setting or character.

By reading well written books and by writing often so that you get better at it. If you're under the mistaken impression that there's some magic formula that will instantaneously improve your ability to be descriptive, now is a good time to abandon that idea. 

Use a thesaurus.