Having a hard time with Discription!!

I love to write just for fun, I rarly finish the stories but thats what makes them I think. I have brilliant discription and wording skills for my age; its just recently, maybe because of the summer holidays and I'm not in education, but I am having a hard time discriptivly wording things. Any advise, like techniques or something.

 

Hmm...well, I may be young, but I would say I'm a pretty good writer. I have a keen eye for detail and flow. And I'm a bit of a perfectionist. When I want to describe something, I just imagine it in my mind and write down everything I see or notice. Not in one sentence though because then it just sounds too descriptive.

 

Write like you talk.

It takes years to build a good working vocabulary. You don't have enough years yet to have that kind of polish. Be patient.

If you're going to describe a scene to your mother, write what you would say to her.

It helps to visualize who your readers are going to be. What age group. What ethnic group, etc.


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Don't try to complicate wording. Just write as you would verbally tell the story. Sometimes, diving into detail too deeply can get you into trouble too. Just keep things simple, but not simplistic.

Also, don't force yourself to go along with a story just because you want to tie up loose ends and finish it real quickly. What you could do instead, is maybe fold it up and put it away for a while and practice some short stories first. Make sure you get all the ending parts in and draw better conclusions to your work. After you've done this for a few weeks, pull out the bigger project and see what you can't do! You'll be amazed at how excellent your skills have improved, and exactly what area you've been seeking improvement in.

And last but not least, read. Get yourself acquainted with different writing styles, and pay close attention and detail to every aspect of the book. Be it an autobiography, a horror novel, or a science fiction read, expand your horizons!

Hope I helped . And good luck!

 

^this is great advice. I like to have a variety of books to learn of different writing styles, from 1970s sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, nonfiction, books about scientific theories, even children's books.

 

Read Hemingway, master of the short sentence and concise description. Then read Norman Mailer, who loves run-on sentences. These two are wildly different but both styles work.

If you can get ahold of Mailer's "Of A Fire On the Moon", read his description of the Apollo 11 launch.

Then there's Hunter Thompson, if you like overstatement, political comment and black humour. There's Farley Mowat, who writes with humour and an obvious sympathy for wild creatures. It might have been Mowat (if not Mark Twain), who said "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Henry Miller's "Sexus" is at the top of my list for erotica.

Or, more likely, there's a writer out there that you think is the last word in moving the reader. Pay close attention to how he does things.

 

Big thanks guys for the advise, exactly what I needed!!

 

Suggestions from a writer.
Descriptive writing is actually fun and profitable. That is what the profession of Technical Writing (TW) is mostly about.

Practice.

Writers write.

Without giving the title of the object, write a description of it and see if someone else knows what you are describing. It is fun and good practice. Try to write an accurate description of a stapler. It sounds easy until you try it.

Book recommendations.
A contemporary writer you might enjoy, who is very successful and a master of the short sentence is James Paterterson. His Maximum Ride books are tons of fun. I can not recommend them enough.

Hemmingway is great if you do not mind that the subjects are basically a bunch of drunks. I am not so sure that today's younger readers will really like his style.

Joseph Conrad is a master.

The woman who wrote "Dark Debts" is a master and you know it from the first page of the book.