Be descriptive!!
"Carol drove past him."
Yes, that gets the point across, but it is not beautiful, it is not detailed, and it is not using words. Try again.
"Carol smoked the worn tires, as she recklessly swerved past him."
That is good, but don't over do it, or it's boring and distracting.
"With a mix of anger and bitterness, the tearful but not sorrowful Carol slammed on the gas, causing the old balding tires to smoke and squeal as she narrowly missed hitting him by mere inches, carelessly swerving recklessly through the red, yellow, brown, and stick covered black asphalt."
That is not a good rendition, but it could easily be salvaged.
Stay simple. One idea = One sentence
Be creative, test your vocabulary. Maybe even invent a new word!
Be descriptive, your readers create a world based off of your words. It's up to you, by how you use your words, or lack thereof, to give them the same pictures in your mind. So, be colorful, imaginative, and take time for details.
If you don't know what details to write...
WHERE is your character? Pretend that I am your reader, I want to know what is happening around the people! Is he outside, is it cloudy, is the grass brown, is their noise, is anything happening?
WHAT is your character doing? Maybe Carl is walking across the yard...oh that's cute....but tells me so very little. Do his shoes make noise? Is he crunching through snow or gravel? Do his hands swing at his sides or are they balled into fists, shoved in his pockets with his shoulders hunched against the wind?
WHEN is it in the timeline? It's TOTALLY okay to jump around in your timeline. In NaNoWriMo 2012 I did that, I had my main character do "flash backs", thus I accomplished two things at once. Writing more words down, and also flushing out my character. So, be sure to let us know where your character is from. 1930s? 1870s?
Give your reader every detail they need, and every detail that you want them to have that they might see a more vivid picture in their mind.
I hope you have a lot of fun writing all the details, that was always my favorite part.
Isaiah 40:12
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?"
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