Always in search of good descriptive writing tips, I found myself watching this video the other day. It’s a short video on how to write descriptively. It made some interesting points; some I agreed with, some I didn’t. But I thought it would be interesting to go through some of the key takeaways!

The first descriptive writing tip from the video: engage the senses, use tactile language

The aim of descriptive writing, according to this video, is to immerse readers in the story. Not to tell them how the characters feel, but to have them feel it for themselves.

I do basically agree with this as a premise, and I think the advice that comes from it is sound. Make sure to engage all of a reader’s senses in your description. That doesn’t mean that every description has to tick off each of the senses. The character could smell the freshly cut grass, and see the piles of just-cut grass, and hear the lawnmower moving away in the distance…

Instead, it’s about not defaulting to vision just because it’s the easiest sense. It’s about thinking of things that the character might be feeling – the movement of air on their skin, anxiety clenching up their stomach, a shiver of anticipation up their spine.

When describing a scene, work to create texture with your words

You can layer your descriptions, like a painting. Starting with the broad strokes, then honing in on details to bring a scene to life. For instance, you could start by describing a landscape covered in snow, before describing figures pushing through it in the distance. The way sound carries, or doesn’t, muffled by the blanket of snowflakes. Your toes starting to lose sensation, even protected by two pairs of socks.

Naturally, it can be easy to get carried away with this sort of thing. You want to avoid using this technique as an excuse to spend 80% of a given page describing things in ever-closer detail! However, I do think it’s a valuable approach to bear in mind, particularly in moments where it’s important to really set the scene for readers.

Avoid cliché in your descriptive writing – over-used images don’t engage readers in the same way

Instead, the video suggests that you challenge your readers with novel imagery and ideas. There were some interesting descriptive writing examples in the video. I think my favourite was:

“The world was ghost-quiet, except for the crack of sails and the burbling of water against hull.” Tobias S. Buckell, Hurricane Fever

The video made a great point about how the author of this extract used avoided creating distance with a simile like ‘quiet as a ghost’. Instead, they created the adjective ‘ghost-quiet’. I like the technique of combining words and linking up ideas to generate new images. Laini Taylor does this as well, in her Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, and I think it can be a great way to bring novelty to your descriptions.

Just like with most advice on descriptive writing, I think you can go too far

As a writer, I appreciate being challenged to think outside the box and push my use of language. As an editor, I also feel strongly that it’s as important to be clear and concise as it is to be descriptive and engaging. The balance is key, to my mind, and I’d almost always rather a writer tell me too little than pull me out of the story with purple prose.

Sometimes a flight of descriptive fancy can elevate a moment in a story. It can connect a reader deeply to what a character is going through, or convey a scene vividly. Sometimes though, trying too hard with your descriptions can put unwanted distance between your ideas and your readers. Unnecessarily complicated language can create a barrier instead of a bridge, and it’s one of my biggest pet peeves when I’m reading.

What are your favourite tips for descriptions?

As always, I’d love to know what you think. If you agree or disagree with me, if you think I missed anything enormous. Share any top tips and tricks in the comments!

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