Writing for Others
A significant challenge many authors face is getting their writing to resonate with readers. The culprit to this predicament is often lack of detail.
To illustrate this concept, let’s look at an example: “Once upon a time, there was a person in a place who did a thing.” If this were a painting, it would be beige. Not something most people would want to look at! But if we add some descriptive language, it becomes something more… “Once upon a time in the late 1800s, a mysterious man lurked the nighttime streets of London’s East End terrorizing its inhabitants with his murderous proclivities.” Our beige painting has turned into a colorful tapestry of images, a feast for the eyes and the brain alike. This is the difference a few descriptive words can make.
Any writer wants readers to care about their characters and feel like they understand the world in which the characters live, and to do that, they have to make readers feel immersed in the story. The key that unlocks this immersion is description.
When comparing the approach to description among different genres of writing, the beauty of fiction is that the characters and setting can be whatever the author envisions them to be. The danger of fiction, however, is that the reader has no frame of reference, so they come into the story with a “blank slate” that must be filled by the words on the page. Fiction is a scenario in which the reader relies on the author’s ability to describe the elements of the story in a way that allows them to understand and appreciate the characters and their environment.
The wonderful thing about writing, however, is that description can happen in any number of ways, depending on the author’s style. For example, some choose to devote paragraphs to describing setting from the way the houses on the street are situated to how the cars out front are parked. Others work descriptions of those things into the prose, referring to the houses and cars throughout the dialogue and activity of the characters. Both are effective ways to bring the reader into the story, provided the author is adept at crafting descriptions that are easy to visualize.
That’s not to say a writer has to spoon-feed the reader every tiny detail. Rather, they should be able to give enough of a description to send the reader down the desired path. If an author wants their readers to fully understand (and be impacted by) a big reveal, they must first lay the groundwork that makes it possible. For example, if they want the reader to, say, grasp why the main character is afraid of horses, they must first describe where the fear comes from. They can do this by way of a detailed flashback, or maybe through the character’s rumination about how everyone thinks horses are delicate and beautiful, a sentiment he was robbed of when, during a riding lesson at nine years old, all of the horses in the ring got spooked by a bird and took off running, sending kids flying in every direction and leaving him to conclude that horses are graceful trampling machines that should be avoided at all costs.
Then when the story leads to the character having to hop on a horse to escape danger or to rescue the love of his life a hundred pages later, the reader will understand the gravity of the situation. The author can use this literary tool to illustrate how the character overcomes his fear for a greater good (making the reader root for him), or to emphasize how he prioritizes his love for his partner over his fear (making the reader care about the outcome of their relationship).
The most important thing for an author to remember when trying to describe elements of their story is that the reader can’t see into the writer’s imagination. The author needs to take the reader on a journey full of sights, sounds, and smells to get them to where the author wants them to go.
It’s Hard to Overexplain
If we look at classics from bygone centuries, we see that popular authors dedicated many pages to description. Consider Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, coming in over 125K words (readinglength.com) in modern translation, much of them spent on vivid sketches of the interactions between the pilgrims. By the end we know intimate details of each person’s life, including their religious beliefs, and their views of society and each other.
If we jump forward a few hundred years, we find J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a narrative deeply rooted in elaborate descriptions of characters, dialogue, and landscapes. Tolkien allowed readers to see into his imagination, right down to what Hobbits eat for breakfast (and second breakfast… why isn’t this a thing?).
While some readers might argue that stories like these contain too much description, there is certainly a hefty counterargument that without that description, readers wouldn’t know and love the narratives’ places and people as they do. I might add that we can’t understand a character we can’t relate to, and we can’t relate to them if we don’t know a significant amount about their appearance, their preferences, the way they think, talk, and act. It’s in those details that we often find ourselves.
Partnership in Editing
An editor can help authors identify the opportunities in their manuscripts where more description will enhance the storytelling. Sometimes, after writing 90K words, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. Collaborating with an editor who knows how to fill those gaps and who cares about your success can elicit the best version of your work.
If you would like to learn more about our editing services, fill out our contact form.
To Summarize
Writers do more than put words on paper (or e-reader) – they take readers by the figurative hand and introduce them to people and places full of heart and emotion, where stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. Readers want to feel a meaningful connection to characters and settings, which is only possible through artful description. An experienced editor can help you get the most out of your story, positioning it to be something readers will welcome into their hearts and minds.