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Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Float like a Butterfly... Sting like a Bee.
Influence this week-
Closer- Kings of Leon
This is a sad day in history. My Skullz bit the dust. I'm currently listening to music in my el-cheapo headphones that came with my iPod. I'm seriously bummed. It's ruining the music. Makes me not want to listen to music. Is this how the rest of the world listens to music? I can't get a feel for the lyrics. Or the background or the actual visual. Gah. I can't live like this.
Anyway, not the topic.
Seriously.
I can't stand these head phones. They're killing me slowly- in a painful excruciating ear ache way where my brain turns into goo and it seeps out from my eyeballs and fills my lungs until I drown in one last pitiful gasp of mercy.
Description is a way of life. It is how a great writer gets their point across. It's how the reader pictures the scene in their head as though they are watching it on TV. It's also how you get readers to come back for more. I sometimes like to fool myself into thinking that description is what keeps a reader even when the story is bad. I've read books alone for the poetic way a writer visualizes the very world the hero/heroine immerse themselves in. Worlds of my own, but seen through fresh eyes where the sun burns brighter, hotter, and the grass is so vividly green the smell dances into your senses. It's a world you know, but the writer has taken the most known thing and turned it on it's top.
My main example being Kim Harrison. Ms. Harrison took our world and flipped it upside down. It's our world, but with the immortals out in the open. Vampires, Pixies, Faeries, Elves, Witches, Warlocks, Trolls, Weres... oooh, and the demons. Don't get me started on the demons. You name it, and she has it.
Everyone has their niche in society. Rachel, Ms. Harrison's main heroine, is a witch, a bounty hunter, who lives in a church with a living vamp and pixy. They are located in a portion of the city called the Hollows where most of the "Inderlanders" live. It's a common life of living within their society and melding into human society. There aren't many humans living in present day Ms. Harrison's world. Humans were almost annihilated in the 60's due to a super virus carried by tomatoes.
But when you read this series, it feels as though this world could be your own. You could walk out your front door and converse with a Were, live across the street from a living vamp, or have pixies inhabiting your garden. It's a world filled with fantasy and fiction and the very real feeling of life. It's her innate descriptions of life and the way the world works through her heroine's eyes that has me begging for more each time I lay a new book down. I wait on pins and needles for a year to pass so I could have one little taste of the Hollows. It's the opening of the second sight and looking upon Carew Tower with the red overcast of the Ever After. The way Al smells of burnt amber, the red in his eyes hidden by sunglasses. The green of his velvet coat. The feeling of your aura slipping from your center. It's you, dying a little each time with Rachel when she has to make a deal. Or watch someone she loves, die. Or the very real feeling of using black magic and owning it, sealing up an oozing wound with the battle scars your willing to bear for all to see. The blacks of Ivy's eyes when she vamps out. The smell of fresh blood on her lips when she moves closer to you against the wood paneling. The fluttering of pixy wings and pixy dust as it floats through the air dancing in the sunlight. The fast steady beat of your heart as your blood flutters through your veins and pools for the very real feeling of life.
It's all in the description. Words on a page that brings us back for more. I love description the most in writing. I love walking into a room and noticing the very first thing that comes to mind. Whatever your eyes land on. If you were walking into that room, what would you notice first? Would you notice how the bedspread doesn't quite cover the corners of the bed? The way the pillowcase is neatly embroidered with poesies and the alarm clock has pretty blue digits instead of those bright red ones? Or the faint stench of death, the two drops of blood soaking into the otherwise pristine white of the sheets? The indention in the mattress that tells you two people once laid there and the way the lamp shade sat crooked on the base? The running water in the bathroom sink and the sound of water cascading over the basin and dripping onto the floor. Or maybe you notice the black work boots over by the window, turned away from you? The window wide open, the sheer curtains floating behind him as an omen. He has one foot on the window sill and he looks back at you, dark eyes gleaming in a warning as he leaps. Yet when you run across the floor, water sloshing and soaking into the hardwood, you see nothing but people on the sidewalk going about their business.
Description is just your perception of how to see things. The reason we forget to include it is because it's taken for granted in our every day life. We think everyone sees the room as we see it, but in order for that reader to gain appreciation for the setup, you have to give them the whole enchilada. No mercy, see the details as a trained detective. Or a messy housekeeper. Or a frazzled mama. But see it.
What's your method of madness while describing or working on description? Do you just glance over description or do you write five paragraphs about how the bedspread? What's the first thing you notice when you walk into a situation as your character? As a reader, what's the first thing you notice about an author's particular style?
Closer- Kings of Leon
This is a sad day in history. My Skullz bit the dust. I'm currently listening to music in my el-cheapo headphones that came with my iPod. I'm seriously bummed. It's ruining the music. Makes me not want to listen to music. Is this how the rest of the world listens to music? I can't get a feel for the lyrics. Or the background or the actual visual. Gah. I can't live like this.
Anyway, not the topic.
Seriously.
I can't stand these head phones. They're killing me slowly- in a painful excruciating ear ache way where my brain turns into goo and it seeps out from my eyeballs and fills my lungs until I drown in one last pitiful gasp of mercy.
Description is a way of life. It is how a great writer gets their point across. It's how the reader pictures the scene in their head as though they are watching it on TV. It's also how you get readers to come back for more. I sometimes like to fool myself into thinking that description is what keeps a reader even when the story is bad. I've read books alone for the poetic way a writer visualizes the very world the hero/heroine immerse themselves in. Worlds of my own, but seen through fresh eyes where the sun burns brighter, hotter, and the grass is so vividly green the smell dances into your senses. It's a world you know, but the writer has taken the most known thing and turned it on it's top.
My main example being Kim Harrison. Ms. Harrison took our world and flipped it upside down. It's our world, but with the immortals out in the open. Vampires, Pixies, Faeries, Elves, Witches, Warlocks, Trolls, Weres... oooh, and the demons. Don't get me started on the demons. You name it, and she has it.
Everyone has their niche in society. Rachel, Ms. Harrison's main heroine, is a witch, a bounty hunter, who lives in a church with a living vamp and pixy. They are located in a portion of the city called the Hollows where most of the "Inderlanders" live. It's a common life of living within their society and melding into human society. There aren't many humans living in present day Ms. Harrison's world. Humans were almost annihilated in the 60's due to a super virus carried by tomatoes.
But when you read this series, it feels as though this world could be your own. You could walk out your front door and converse with a Were, live across the street from a living vamp, or have pixies inhabiting your garden. It's a world filled with fantasy and fiction and the very real feeling of life. It's her innate descriptions of life and the way the world works through her heroine's eyes that has me begging for more each time I lay a new book down. I wait on pins and needles for a year to pass so I could have one little taste of the Hollows. It's the opening of the second sight and looking upon Carew Tower with the red overcast of the Ever After. The way Al smells of burnt amber, the red in his eyes hidden by sunglasses. The green of his velvet coat. The feeling of your aura slipping from your center. It's you, dying a little each time with Rachel when she has to make a deal. Or watch someone she loves, die. Or the very real feeling of using black magic and owning it, sealing up an oozing wound with the battle scars your willing to bear for all to see. The blacks of Ivy's eyes when she vamps out. The smell of fresh blood on her lips when she moves closer to you against the wood paneling. The fluttering of pixy wings and pixy dust as it floats through the air dancing in the sunlight. The fast steady beat of your heart as your blood flutters through your veins and pools for the very real feeling of life.
It's all in the description. Words on a page that brings us back for more. I love description the most in writing. I love walking into a room and noticing the very first thing that comes to mind. Whatever your eyes land on. If you were walking into that room, what would you notice first? Would you notice how the bedspread doesn't quite cover the corners of the bed? The way the pillowcase is neatly embroidered with poesies and the alarm clock has pretty blue digits instead of those bright red ones? Or the faint stench of death, the two drops of blood soaking into the otherwise pristine white of the sheets? The indention in the mattress that tells you two people once laid there and the way the lamp shade sat crooked on the base? The running water in the bathroom sink and the sound of water cascading over the basin and dripping onto the floor. Or maybe you notice the black work boots over by the window, turned away from you? The window wide open, the sheer curtains floating behind him as an omen. He has one foot on the window sill and he looks back at you, dark eyes gleaming in a warning as he leaps. Yet when you run across the floor, water sloshing and soaking into the hardwood, you see nothing but people on the sidewalk going about their business.
Description is just your perception of how to see things. The reason we forget to include it is because it's taken for granted in our every day life. We think everyone sees the room as we see it, but in order for that reader to gain appreciation for the setup, you have to give them the whole enchilada. No mercy, see the details as a trained detective. Or a messy housekeeper. Or a frazzled mama. But see it.
What's your method of madness while describing or working on description? Do you just glance over description or do you write five paragraphs about how the bedspread? What's the first thing you notice when you walk into a situation as your character? As a reader, what's the first thing you notice about an author's particular style?
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Quartermaster's Queries (Sin),
Sin
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31 comments:
Jay-sus! Man, Sin...ya got me seein' that room on the inside a' me eyeballs.
And I feel very inferior when it comes ta description of place. As ya say, I suffer from the writer's block a' knowin' what things look like, where I be.
I aim ta work on better roundin' me place description on one a' those multi edit phases I got through after I finish the basic story. If'n I had ta put it in order...likely one a' the last things I look at.
Though, after seein' what ya do...I may work harder at fixin' things as I go...
Impressive blog. I agree 'bout Kim Harrison, the world she built is somethin' else... So is yours.
Is that opening quote from Mohammad Ali (ex-world boxing champ)?
My TBR pile is already inflating like the early universe, but after reading your description of Kim Harrison's world I'm gonna have to add those books too!
Will my TBR universe expand for ever, oscillate or reach a steady state? Whatever it is, sounds as though Harrison's books will accelerate the process!
Sin, you have a talent for description, your own seductive brand of black magic which, like a black hole,always sucks me in.
Super Blog....love it! :smt052
Description. Ugh. I think description might be one of the hardest things for me. When I start to describe things, I end up reading back over and thinking it's too flowery. Then I usually axe it out.
I think part of my problem is that I get impatient with too much description in books. I want action, I want feelings and emotion. Too much detail about clothes or surroundings pulls me out of the story.
But, that said, there are some writers who do it so well that I can't help getting sucked in.
I love some good description and what you have in this blog is amazing, lady. Wow!
Description doesn't come naturally to me. I'm not the most observant person. It's another one of those things about myself I find annoying. So describing a setting or even the clothes my characters wear is more an after thought.
However, that said, I'm working on it. When I get to the point that I start thinking how to enhance things, I slide in descriptions. In my short story, I included a part where you could see the dust floating in the sliver of moonlight coming through the window. It was a description without saying the moon was full or the curtain were blue or the room was dark.
I love that stuff, but my moments of including it are rare.
Seriously, Ter. Sin's brand of description, well, that's just my style. All dark and angsty. :)
Mornin' y'all.
I think the point of writing description is to not over do it but skim the surface and make the reader feel like you're digging deep. I always feel as though my description is too flowery, too prose like for book form and especially too in depth for the type of fiction I try to write. But if I'm writing and need to picture the room I just walked into, I close my eyes and stay like that for a second. Then I put my fingers on the keys and I start typing everything I see. It can always be edited down or made to look nicer but it's that initial impression you get from the room that should be captured.
It's like trying to teach someone how to write in first person when all they've ever written is third (and vice versa). It's about the amount of depth you're willing to delve into, and all about how to perceive the actions among your characters. A first person character will see things different than a third person character (at least I like to think so, and it's mostly because I can't write third, LOL). If I walk into a room and I'm seeing it only through first person, you're only getting MY first impression, but with third person you could branch out and give an OVERALL impression.
Describe the room you're sitting in. Or we could find a picture and all describe the room. We're all going to see the same room differently.
Description is not easy for me. I would much rather write dialogue. I also enjoy describing people and their quirks rather than scenes. I notice smells as soon as I enter a room. I've always had a keen sense of smell. So I always write how a room smells, and I usually have a candle burning because I'm a candle freak.
I enjoy Janet Evanovich's descriptions, especially those of Ranger:) She also amazes me when she describes the burg. The row houses, Stark Street and how it runs through the worst part of the city and then straight to hell:)She has the most perfect, but quirky descriptions. I like descriptions I can relate too, or as you said,see it through the eyes of a character that I simply can't get enough of.
MM, I think an easy way to fix the issue of not feeling like you can describe what you're seeing is to practice looking at pictures of what you're trying to convey and describe it. Like an exercise. And I know we all hate exercise (I sometimes think exercise is the Anti-Christ) but sometimes the only way to feel better about what we're doing is to work on it. I don't feel like it should be an issue in the first draft-(Unless you're like Marn and me and edit as you go - I know you do Marn.)- but should be something looked at closer as you move through it and try to get a feel for the scene you're in.
Sometimes it's hard to describe something you see in your head- fantasy and sci-fic especially- because usually our imaginations have a way of making things up in our heads and making it almost impossible to describe to people who can't see the wonder and beauty of it. I have faith that you can do it. I know you can. I think you do well in description but just lack confidence in your ability.
Q, it was a quote from Mohammed Ali. I think it's the perfect description in a small package.
I think that if you're into paranormal/urban fantasy then Kim Harrison is a must read for most TBRs. Her world building skills are phenominial. Her character building is beyond my wildest dreams to achieve and her plot lines are flawless with how they arc and weave. Ms. Harrison is the type of fiction I aspire to write someday. Not to mention I've heard she's one of the sweetest people to meet.
Unlike dialogue, which I can't get a handle of, I can rock out some description. (So thank you for the awesome comment Q!) It might be because I'm not one for talking but for watching and observing. And even though I eavesdrop on almost every conversation I come in contact with, I still can't grasp dialogue. I practice, but it seems forced. I've heard I should take an impov class to help me get in the habit of making fast conversations, but I can't do it. I literally couldn't make myself walk out onto a stage and do it. Not even if someone dared me. I'd rather let a spider crawl on me.
Marn, I think you do some AWESOME description. Of course, my favorite description of yours is of my girl crush, Ice. And you know what I'm talking about. Like MM, I think you're just lacking the confidence in your own ability to write it.
I love action in books. It's one of the reasons I continue to read an author after I've given up on their ability to plot or actually have story growth. I crave that section where the description is the action and it's the main flow of the book. It's all about voice and pitch of your voice to control the tempo. Description NEVER should slow down the tempo, only inhance the reader's experience. I don't know how this changes with third person though. Sometimes less is more with description and me saying about a dark alley is more than a dark alley is redundant. Most dark alleys are just like all the rest of them. Only use more detailed description when the scene calls for it. Like moving into a new house or you go into your hero's apartment and notice he has nothing personal laying around. These are clues about your characters, not necessarily boring facts. Wouldn't you be curious about a man who lives in an apartment with no personal touches?
I love how intrigued you are by description, Sin. Usually when I think about description, I'm bitching. Either about writing it or reading it. Now that said, I love *good* description, the kind of the puts me right there in the middle of the action and makes me feel like I could step into the character's shoes. I need to try Kim Harrison.
I'm terrible at writing it, though. Terrible. I have to go back and force myself to add it in, and it sucks *g*
I think description comes from my love of music. I've been thinking about it all morning. I think more need to have a visual while I'm listening to music helps me when I'm writing and creating a backdrop for my characters. There's such a diversity of description in music and with so many songs there is a neverending abundance to imagination in short spurts. Like "Closer" by Kings of Leon. I've not quite got the visual on the song. So I have it on repeat in my office. I'm going to listen to this song until I can see it. Description is more like an obsession. Until I can get it right, I don't move forward. It's a challenge. And I love a good challenge. LOL
I must say that I love description with the moonlight. I'm fascinated with the dark. The way the stars glitter in the sky and the way the moonlight fades against the window panes and drifts through the curtains to settle upon the floor. You're description was perfect Ter! I can't believe you think you can't do great description.
I really don't think any of us are awful at description. Yeah, sometimes it's a struggle, but all things are. I think we're just not satisfied with the quality of description we produce with what we think we should produce. We are ALL wonderful at it in our own unique way and that's how description works.
I usually don't worry overly much about the type of clothes one character is wearing, unless my heroine has on ripped blue jeans with her pockets showing and knees bruised and the hero is wearing a sleek black suit with a pressed black button up underneath the jacket. That's going to see a little awkward and my character would think about it, therefore I would describe it. But other than that, noticing ever little detail is redundant. You have to learn how to leave it for the imagination of the reader and when to step in for them and for me that's more of a judgment call.
Lisa... Please. You are the queen of description. Just because your description doesn't usually include the paragraph kind, your description through dialogue is priceless. Not to mention it keeps the flow going and the tension between the characters.
I burn candles while I write too. I dunno why because I never include scent in my description (unless it's the bad kind of smell, LOL) but the ambience a candle lends to a room helps foster good description. At least for me when it's late at night and my brain is on stand-by.
As for JE, I think I'm with you. She has crazy descriptions for innate things. And once she'd determined how to describe something, she sticks with it for better or worse. I don't know if I'd be willing to marry any of my descriptions, but once you find the right one, you might as well stick to it like glue for a while.
Hal, I really do think you're good at description and just don't know it. Look at the type of fiction you write. You have to have good description skills to get that out there.
I admire those who do description well--I love Kleypas' contemporaries, for instance--and wish I could write more like that. Kleypas, I think, does a good job at making the description a part of the character, which I think is very important. I think all aspects of writing: plot, character, description, et al, should all be so intertwined that one couldn't exist without the other.
In Sugar Daddy, when Liberty describes the pit bulls--the description is so vivid and so compelling that that's pretty much how you start picturing pit bulls. *LOL* And there is such a southern drawl even in the description that I feel closer to the character. (I think this is why I seek out southern fiction a lot. The language is something I very much identify with.)
Oh, and I have to mention Marsha Moyer too. Her description of Texas is such that I swear I could drive there and find the town she writes about--even though she made it up. *LOL* THAT is great description.
I think it takes real art and practice to write description in such a way that it is intrinsically part of the novel and not something that feels like purple prose.
I agree. One of the things I love about Kleypas is her ability to adapt to her surroundings like her characters. I can't imagine her having a southern drawl, but to hear her characters while reading SD and BED was like stepping outside on the front porch and listening to the old guys uptown talk about farming and kids and the old days. It all flowed really well.
Wow, flashbulb moment... Suddenly, I see what ya means about bits and pieces. I gots an author quote book. I collect lines that just make me head explode with envy and appreciation. Nancy Bush did this one that started the collection fer me...
"She was built like a wide, torpedo-shaped footstool, broad back and short legs. Her face and tail were black; her body light tan. She was like a Siamese cat on steroids who'd undergone a species-chance and then taken up chasing parked cars."
OK, what breed of dog is she describing?
Hm, a pitbull maybe?
When I read that all I can see is this goofy pitbull who looks tough, but is really loveable and has a love of moving vehicles. Of course, this goofy pitbull doesn't live a long and full life because her owner never paid much attention to her affection for the moving vehicle and subsiquently, the pitbull is accidently ran over one morning while they are out for a run and the dog breaks loose of her grasp for one horrifying moment. If only she had taught the dog to heel instead of embracing her love of cars instead of ankles.
Ha! A pug! I saw it right away, especially the bit about a Siamese with a species change. But I dig how you took the description and wrote a story about it... That is a story, right? Not about some actual dog who ended up dead...
Gee, I was having such a good morning!
My point? I was thinkin' I had to be really deep in my description...you know, very introspective. Then I remembered the Nancy Bush quote and it's like... "Oh! Yeah!"
Like Terrio's moonlight portrait... It isn't always the quantity as the quality. I think I can manage quality... I do love writing short...
Sin, you do both brilliantly.
Kim Harrison's last book was the only hardcover I've spent the money to buy in years and years. BUT I had to have it becuase her world is fantastic and you do feel that it's the world we would see if we just opened our eyes to what's aroun dus - by that I mean part of her premise is that the inderlanders were always there but humans didn't know. That part of the plot is a huge reason why people can relate so well to the world she has created.
Great post and if you don't read Kim you should check her out!
It would certainly make sense of all those times when life really seems strange...if they really were there. Which is why her world works so well.
Maybe she be ghost writin'...it really is there!
Sorry, I'm missing the party.
Chance - I thought that was a bassette hound. LOL! But I love that description!
Chance- I made up the puppy story. I swear on my pirate honor.
I always feel really awkward fielding compliments on my description. I don't feel like my description is any different from everyone elses and it certainly isn't good enough for publishing strength. I think I have a long road ahead of me before I'll be able to believe that publishing is something I could do.
Sabrina, I love your point! One of the biggest things to relate to in KH's books is the fact that the paranormal has always been here, lurking under our human noses and we never saw it because we're too wrapped up trying to believe that vampires, faeries and witches are just make believe. Of course, last night I informed Mattycakes- my darling DH- that someday I would be a vampire. And he laughed (he's got that kind of audacity) and said "And I will win 12 Mr. Olympia's". I just said very calmly, "Well Mr. Olympia you just let me know if you want me to turn you or not because I believe."
I'm so glad to know there is another KH fan out here with us!
With Matty's ego, you want to give him the option of immortality? Are you serious? LOL!
LMFAO. You're right. I'd have to throw him to the sunlight.
It's funny, I've written a character who is all but immortal and she's pissed about it. So afraid to be alone and lose everyone and everything she knows. I look at the whole vampire thing and...as scared as I am to die...I don't know about leaving everyone I know behind...
But I could dig living healthy and happy past my century mark...
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