01 November 2010

What I Learned Today

After all was said and done this morning, Mr. Dave Farland gave us writing assignment on description. Description is not one of my fortes, so it was probably good. I mean it was good . . . is good.

The assignment included using three things to describe a scene, especially the parts of it that don't move. Buildings, natural things . . . stuff like that. These are just a couple of of tips Mr. Farland gave us.

4) Appeal to all of the senses--sight (don’t just describe the colors of things, but also their textures), sound, smell, taste, touch (hot/cold/wet/dry/firmness/abrasiveness). Don't forget the sense of passing time.

5) In order to avoid the use of the to be verbs, consider putting the object being described at the front of the sentence, followed by a strong verb, followed by the thing that is acted upon. For example, rather than saying "The day was so cold that bits of ice hung in the air, driving into Theron's face as he plunged into the storm," you would say, "Needles of ice drove into Theron's face as he plunged through the storm."

So I spent a few minutes (okay, at least an hour) re-writing two paragraphs from no novel into a full blown description, uh, thing. It was hard.

On the bright side, Mr. Farland was very complimentary of the first two pages of my novel, along with the idea for the plot. That made me VERY happy.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Thanks for sharing all your stuff! I hope you are having a great time. Word count?