Basics of Descriptive Writing

[Durriken Petulengro]

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By
Vicks from Final Fantasy Forum Role Play

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This is my informal guide on how to make your posts come more to life. I'm still a little rusty at writing myself, I've been in the military working for a year, but I hope that this helps people.

The basics of descriptive writing are the five senses. Sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. These combined with thought and emotion create a vivid picture of whats going on around you.

Example of an undetailed sentence : "Billy bounces the red ball."
In this sentence the only thing that can be derived is Billy bouncing his ball.

The same sentence could be made into several sentences by thinking about the 5 senses and the abstracts of thought and emotion.

"Billy sat outside of his grand mothers brick house on a mild spring day. The air smelled of fresh apple pie that was hanging out of the window. Billy was upset, and had a frown on his face, his mother had told him 'To wait till after supper' to have pie. He bordly bounced his favorite crimson red kick ball along the grainy sidewalk."

First, I identified his surroundings briefly, with elements of touch sight (sitting, grandmas house), elements of touch (the mild sunlight), and smell (the pie) . "Grand mothers house on a mild spring day." Second I described his feelings and why he was feeling this way (no pie!). Finally I described what I was primarily trying to get across (bouncing the ball). I even expanded on it by adding what kind of ball it was, what he was bouncing it on, and even gave it a color more specific than just plain old red.

This is not even all I could have done, I could have added in sound as well as taste. Maybe Billy is also thirsty and his throat feels dry and parched (arguably taste), and perhaps I could have added the sound of the balls or some bees buzzing by.
Even without these things I took a 5 word sentence and made it into a 64 word one.

Also, please enjoy this list of colors at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors

If you have any questions feel free to pm me or post here, I'm no English major though. This guide isn't really complete but this is all I've got for now.