Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Looking at Description #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Description is the best way to involve your reader and make them feel they are part of the story. This is done by using the senses. Sight, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. For some of us who write fantasy this involves other senses like those included in ESP.

Why would a writer want to involve the senses? Using them in not pedestrian ways brings the word pictures into vivid images. Let's see what could happen using each of the senses to give depth to a character, a setting, a world or an object the character sees or uses.

You could say. She heard his voice. That is rather ordinary. You could say the tone of his voice made her afraid. A bit better. Or His rasping voice rolled along her nerves sending chills along her spine. Now this gives you a really vivid picture. You haven't seen the threatening character but you have a picture of him in your mind.

She saw the car he drove. Ordinary. She studied the blue convertible. A bit better. One look at the sleek blue convertible and she thought money. Tells you something about her and him.

The white house sat on a hill. Or atop the steep road up the hill stood a white house. A curving driveway lined with hedges of roses climbed the hill to the white house.

So when you're describing one of your characters, or the setting, think of making these word pictures descriptive and the reader will see these places and people as real.