how do you describe something in a novel

5 Ways To Make Description Work In Your Novel

1. Description in character. When describing a character, look for the little details that give insight into their background, state of mind, and lifestyle. ...
2. Description in action. In a thriller, you don’t want to slow down to shoehorn in description. ...
3. Description in viewpoint. A description without viewpoint can be as flat as copy in a brochure. ...
4. Description in emotion. ...
5. Description in pacing. ...

Full Answer

How do you describe characters in a story?

Read 7 tips for describing characters so they come to life: 1. Focus on details that reveal characters’ personalities and psychologies 2. Prioritize unique character features 3. Describe characters’ body language and gestures 4. Allow internal contradictions 5. Read writers renowned for their characterization 6.

How do you write vivid descriptions in a novel?

Use dynamic words. To get a scene to jump off the page, create vivid descriptions through dynamic language—choose words that have movement over words that are static. This is especially helpful when you have to build a new world, like in a science fiction novel. 3. Engage a reader’s senses.

How do you describe a person?

Learning how to describe a person so that the reader forms a vivid impression of your characters is essential for writing compelling stories. Read 7 tips for describing characters so they come to life: Let’s dive into each of these points: 1. Focus on details that reveal personality A character’s hair or eye colour doesn’t tell the reader much.

How do you write a description of a scene?

” Use sensory detail—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—to describe a scene. Use the strongest description sense for the scene. If your character is in a gutter, smell may be more provocative than sight. 4. Use point of view to inform descriptive writing.

How to describe novel?

Lengthy, Yellow-Covered, Pastoral, Latter-Day, Brief, Next, Other, New, Ordinary, Prosaic, Good, Read, French, Three-Volume, Full-Fledged, Such, Co...

What are the descriptive word for novel?

Lengthy, Yellow-Covered, Pastoral, Latter-Day, Brief, Next, Other, New, Ordinary, Prosaic, Good, Read, French, Three-Volume, Full-Fledged, Such, Co...

What are the adjectives to describe novel?

Lengthy, Yellow-Covered, Pastoral, Latter-Day, Brief, Next, Other, New, Ordinary, Prosaic, Good, Read, French, Three-Volume, Full-Fledged, Such, Co...

How do you describe novel?

Lengthy, Yellow-Covered, Pastoral, Latter-Day, Brief, Next, Other, New, Ordinary, Prosaic, Good, Read, French, Three-Volume, Full-Fledged, Such, Co...

Use Great (Not Merely ‘Nice’) Adjectives

The word ‘nice’ itself is a good example of a nice adjective. It’s nondescript, the opposite of descriptive. If a friend went on vacation and descr...

Use Describing Words That Show More Than Appearance

Aspiring authors, when introducing characters, often describe people by their eye colour alone. This is ineffective as description for two reasons:...

Practice How to Filter Place and Character Description Through A Character’S Viewpoint

One of the important functions of description in narration is that it gives us information about the viewpoint character doing the describing. A fe...

Build Descriptions Over The Course of Your Story

To give your writing descriptive power, build on your descriptions. If a house looks abandoned and neglected from the outside, describe further sig...

Build A Rich Vocabulary of Words to Describe People and Places

Actively expand the set of descriptive words and synonyms you have in your toolkit.For example, characters can be divided into four simplified type...

What is a good description?

Good description is carefully woven into the action so the story keeps moving. For example, a thriller must keep a page-turning pace to keep readers in suspense, so descriptions should happen as dramatic events unfold rather than stepping out of the scene and stopping the action. Let the reader use their imagination.

What is descriptive writing?

In fiction writing, authors bring characters to life and create imaginative settings through descriptive writing—using vivid details, figurative language, and sensory information to paint a picture for readers. Well-crafted descriptive writing draws readers into the story. It’s an essential part of storytelling that every author needs to learn.

Why do authors use descriptive language?

An author uses descriptive language to depict a character, setting, or scene in a way that creates an image in the reader’s mind. A writer often uses figurative language to evoke the reader’s senses. Descriptive writing gives a story more depth and credibility by allowing readers to imagine the physical world and characters a writer has created.

How to improve descriptive writing?

Do creative writing exercises. To improve your descriptive writing, try simple exercises. For example, try writing one-paragraph descriptions of places or people. Write a description of a room you know well. Take a location every knows—like New York—and describe the city from a fictional character’s point of view.

What happens if a writer uses bland words?

If a writer uses bland words (like describing a character as “nice”) character development will fall flat.

How to describe a first person POV?

In first person or third person pov, describe how the main character views other people and experiences moments.

How to describe a character?

Here are some exercises to get going with character description: 1 Describe a woman’s face in a moment of anger. Use at least one metaphor (‘Her mouth is a…’) 2 A woman finds out she has won the lottery. Describe her emotions using body language and movement as she moves from elation to anxiety and back again. 3 A man has found out his friend has committed a great deception. Describe him approaching from the friend’s viewpoint. Show the friend realising he’s been found out.

How to describe a person so they come alive?

If there is an area of craft you struggle with – such as how to describe a person so they come alive – use exercises and prompts. Practicing each element of physical description along with using movement and gesture will help you give characters authentic-feeling depth.

How does Chekhov convey the age of his character?

Chekhov conveys the age of his character well via his aching with the cold as well as his patchy memory. Chekhov deepens his character description by sharing Zotov’s thoughts in a later paragraph:

What does a character's hair tell you?

A character’s hair or eye colour doesn’t tell the reader much. When you introduce a character, focus on details that reveal personality or psychology. Here’s Dostoevsky describing his character Katerina Ivanova (who has tuberculosis) in Crime and Punishment (1866):

What is the metaphor for Dickens' hair?

Although Dickens describes his character’s hair, he uses a striking visual metaphor (‘a plantation of firs’). This leads quickly back to description showing the schoolmaster’s fact-obssessed nature (‘…as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside’).

What to focus on when introducing a character?

Focus on details that reveal characters’ personalities and psychologies. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) A character’s hair or eye colour doesn’t tell the reader much. When you introduce a character, focus on details that reveal personality or psychology.

What is the coughing in Dostoevsky's book?

Dostoevsky conveys the fraught mental state of his character as well as her restless nature. The coughing is a reminder of her life-threatening condition. The fact she continues to pace despite her discomfort suggests her determination.

What does "writers write" mean?

Writers Write is a resource for writers and we have written about words that describe taste, smell, and touch in previous posts. (We even have one for words that describe colours .) In this post I have included words that describe sounds.

What are some good words to make your writing come alive?

Use this list to make your writing come alive. babble – a gentle, pleasant sound of water as it moves along in a river. bang – to move, making loud noises. beep – a short high sound or several short high sounds. blare – to make a loud and unpleasant noise. blast – to make a loud sound with a car horn.

How many pages does a letter take to read?

So while the "letter" itself would occupy two pages, reading the letter requires five pages . This is not that letter, it is a first draft of something similar; as an example.

How to format an email as separate from the narration?

If you format the email as separate from the narration, that will take care of most of the transition between the narrator and the text of the email. Set it aside in its own paragraph and do one or more of the following: indent, italicize, change the font type, change the font size, or place in a box.

Can you italicize a piece of text?

You would just italicize the piece of text. Separate it from the rest of the text, like this:

Is an email a dialogue?

You might be thinking of the email as internal dialogue, which requires quotes and actions and so forth. But it's not. It's a separate piece of text. Make it obviously separate and your reader will completely understand what is going on, with only the briefest of lead in's.