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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm going to add my thoughts, belated though this is. First, welcome, "Duck"! Nice to have you. One thing that occurred to me in reading all of the excellent suggestions above, is that not all descriptions are visual. Scents and sounds are commonly described, also; taste and touch less so, I think. I have a couple of bits of advice, the first being kind of Gestalt-y. Try focusing, really concentrating, on different things. Let's say you're outside and concentrating on sounds; close your eyes (to help you focus better) and listen. You might hear birds and traffic, sure, but. Are there different bird calls? Is the wind rustling the trees? Do you notice the whoosh of tires on the pavement? Details, child, details!  You have to be aware of something before you can describe it. I strongly agree with the read, read, read advice. This will help you learn what you want to do--and what you do NOT want to do. Mary Stewart is an author who can take you TO whatever spot she's writing about--you can see it in your mind quite well. These descriptions are quite detailed. But, as has been pointed out, too much detail is not always good! And I for one have not bothered to try and figure out the parameters ahead of time, but I sure know 'em when I see 'em. For example, if I read that someone was standing "one hand on hip, toe tapping impatiently", I don't need a description of the facial expression, and in fact I far prefer to be left to imagine it. But I can only talk about something like that "case by case"; I can't carry it on to a generalization, I don't think.
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Joined: Feb 2002
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old hand
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old hand
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I always feel that if order for someone to see what you are describing you must be detailed.
Not necessarily true. I remember attending a workshop with Isabel Huggan (a not-very-well-known Cdn writer), and she talked about describing a table in one of her stories in great detail - in the first draft or two of that story. The table in all its glory was not mentioned in the story in the end - it was referred to as "the table" or with very little extra detail - but Isabel thought the important thing was to have imagined it fully.
I can't remember who gave this advice about writing, but someone (a writer, too!) once said that you should read over all your writing, and when you come to a passage you particularly like, strike it out....This was given as advice for avoiding purple prose, methinks!
If you want advice on writing, one of the best things you can do is follow the advice above (about reading lots, and writing lots) - and while you're reading, include The Writer's Quotation Book: A Literary Companion, edited by James Charlton. It has many gems in it. Some examples:
Any writer overwhemingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others. ~ Marianne Moore
My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. ~ John D. MacDonald
I never care to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. ~ Samuel Johnson
I only read two books in my life and that includes The Official Pete Rose Scrapbook. That's not a book - that's a bunch of pictures. I done the captions. I've written more damn books than I've read. ~ Pete Rose
It's not the most intellectual job in the world, but I do have to know the letters. ~ Vanna White
It's witty, it's irreverent, it's reverent, it's frustrating, it's illuminating. I always like reading what other writers (eg, not Pete Rose!) have to say about writing - sometimes it gives me hope, and sometimes it gives me a much-needed reality check.
Welcome to the board, duckie! You'll get lots of opportunities to find your voice here.
If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull side.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wonder if... ...but someone (a writer, too!) once said that you should read over all your writing, and when you come to a passage you particularly like, strike it out...
- and -
Any writer overwhemingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others. ~ Marianne Moore
My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. ~ John D. MacDonald... are talking about the same thing. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I've come on this one late, as usual - but just the same, I extend my welcome to you, unieduck. My two penn'oth of advice is on a slightly divergent track. You hint that you are not totally satisfied with your vocabulary and would like to increase it. (My deep apologies if I've misunderstod you.) One efficient way of increasing vocabulary is to read books and articles with words in that you do not completely understand - or understand at all, possibly. Look them up in the dictionary and write them down, complete with meaning: the act of writing helps to consolidate the knowledge in your mind. Select four or five of the words and introduce them into conversation at least three times each during the next week. Include them in anything you write, if possible, over the next week or two. Actually speaking the words, in a proper context, really does hamnmer them into your mind, and gives you a well-trodden neural path to their door, so that you can access them with ease when the appropriate time comes. It does, of course, make your conversation a bit strange but it's worth it. Good luck!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Many thanks for the compliment, Ma'am. It's part of my Study Skills lecture series. People pay good money to come and hear me say that - and all y'all are getting it for free!  I'll pass amongst you with the hat later.
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veteran
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veteran
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Look them up in the dictionary and write them down, complete with meaning: the act of writing helps to consolidate the knowledge in your mind.
Select four or five of the words and introduce them into conversation at least three times each during the next week.
Okay, I'm such a geek, but your method really works. I have a small notepad I carry around for this purpose (among others). I used to get a lot of weird stares from people for showing off on the vocabulary sometimes, but eventually many of the words you learn will become natural to you. It sounds geeky and it is, but it works very well. One slightly embarrassing thing is that when other people have seen my list, they usually say something like "You don't know what a 'parricide' is?" And I have to say, "Well, I thought it was a verb, but so and so used it like a noun and I'm just guessing, but I really just want to look it up to make sure ... but ... no ... I guess I didn't know."
k
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old hand
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old hand
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Very probably, there is about as much (contradictory) advice about writing as there is about child education. Success is a volatile perfume.
I find that A. Conan Doyle is still a marvelous example for completeness combined with conciseness in description.
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old hand
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old hand
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Apropos 'contradictory'.... late as usual, I will nonetheless add two points that might be helpful for Lander:
1. Try not to concentrate too much on the words with which you want to communicate your idea, but on the idea itself. Provided you have a reasonable grasp of the language you're using, the words will surface on their ownself. At any one time we have a sheer endless amount of ways to express that which we think; the filtering process should focus on the desired pattern, the goal, not on the individual grains being run through.
2. Don't read (too much)! I know this goes against that which many have said above, but is sifting endlessly through the symbolic representations of other's thoughts really going to assist immeasurably in the articulation of your own? Have you stopped reading this?
Reading others and writing oneself should be kept conceptually and practically separate, IMHO. Success is indeeed a volatile perfume, but that doesn't mean one can easily distill its origins. I'm not suggesting we trash our bookcases, but I think being 'well-read' is often stifling to one's own self-expression. This is particularly true in music - you sit down to bang out a tune and can't help remembering someone else's that sounds similar - agh!!!
Happy writing anyway!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Lovely to see you back, by.
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