Description Tip: Make “Sense” of Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

You have five great tools for writing better descriptions, so why not use them all?

I’ll be honest—description is my least favorite thing to write. I always have to do a revision pass specifically to add more description, and I have critique partners who regularly whack me with the description stick when I slack off. 

 

So I created little games to make it more fun for me. One of them helps me focus and guides my brainstorming toward how my characters might see their world, and what ways they might describe their surroundings and experiences.

If you have a similar distaste of descriptions, or struggle with knowing what details to use, or you’re just looking for fun tips to help with description, try this:

Sight with Insight: Maximizing Your Author Senses

By Sherry Howard, @SherLHoward

Part of The Writer’s Life Series

JH: A writer’s senses are important tools in crafting fiction. Please help me welcome Sherry Howard to the lecture hall today to share some thoughts on making the most of your senses.

Sherry Howard lives in Middletown, Kentucky, in a household busy with kids and pets. She worked as an educator, and now has the luxury of writing full time. Her debut picture book, Rock and Roll Woods, released in October, 2018. And her middle grade NF, Deep Sea Divers, just released. She has more books in the pipeline for publication soon.

Sherry loves to meet other readers and writers, so be in touch on social media here:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Take it away Sherry…

Make Your Setting Come Alive

By Jeffery Phillips

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Setting plays a critical role in a novel by giving the reader a place to settle in and enjoy the story. Today, Jeffery Phillips returns to the lecture hall for some tips on bringing your setting to life.

Jeffrey “Hammerhead” Philips strapped on a scuba cylinder (when Clorox bottles were BCD’s) for the first time in 1967. Dove for two years, decided he liked the water and obtained his scuba certification from NASDS, then became a PADI instructor. He hasn’t stopped diving since. In 1980 he married the prettiest mermaid in the ocean, Kitty. Today, he lives in Monterey, Tennessee, writing fictionalized events of his travels. He's the author of Murder on Devil Ray Reef and Death at Obeah's Fire.
 
Website | Facebook | Goodreads |

Take it away Jeffery...

Putting In Your Five Senses Worth

By Sandra Havriluk, @SandraHavriluk

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Description cab be both a lot of fun, and a pain to write. It's a necessary evil in any good story, so it's important we do our best to bring our settings and world to life for our readers. Please help me welcome Sandra Havriluk to the lecture hall today to share an exercise to make "sense" of our descriptions.

A native Georgian, Sandra earned her English degree from the University of Georgia and her MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. She worked as a trainer, technical writer, and project manager for AT&T before having children. When they started school, she went back to school to earn her teaching certification. She has taught every age level from pre-school to college. Now a full-time author, Sandra also teaches Creative Writing to children and adults at the Community Arts Center. She’s an avid walker, using that time to work out story arcs and to remind herself of the importance of carpe diem. Sandra lives in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with her husband John and sweet rescue dog Jackpot, who hit the jackpot when she adopted him. Look for Sandra’s children stories published in Highlights Magazine. Her debut romance novel Treacherous Hearts (YA historical fiction) will be released by High Hill Press in 2017.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Take it away Sandra...

Did You Hear That? Showing Sound

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I love crafting scenes where my narrator can't see. I'm not sure when this developed, but quite often in The Healing Wars, Nya is either in the dark, locked away inside something, or otherwise deprived of her sight. I find it creepier to put her in situations like that, and it lets both her and the reader imagine the worst and helps raise the tension of a scene.

Sometimes it's perfectly fine to use "heard" or "sound," just like it's fine to use saw or look if that's what makes the scene work best (I've even had my copy editor put it back into the text when I've written it without it). But other times it reads as redundant, detached, or even told. There are only so many times you can write "the sound of..." before it sounds repetitive.

Appeal to the Senses—and Emotions

By Jodie Renner, @JodieRennerEd

Part of the How They Do It Series   

JH: I'd like to welcome Jodie Renner to the blog today, to chat with us about good sense. Or rather, using the senses to bring a scene to life.

Jodie is a freelance fiction editor, specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, mysteries and other crime fiction, as well as YA, historical fiction and mainstream. Please visit Jodie’s website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com.

Take it away Jodie...