Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing is a literary technique that vividly paints a picture in the reader's mind by employing rich, sensory language. This style contrasts with concise writing, which aims for brevity. Through the use of adjectives, adverbs, and figurative language—including sensory details, metaphors, similes, and personification—descriptive writing enhances the mood and immerses the reader in the narrative. It is commonly found in various forms of fiction, such as novels, short stories, and poetry, allowing for the exploration of diverse genres like science fiction, horror, and realistic fiction.
While descriptive writing is not typically suitable for certain nonfiction genres like textbooks and reports, it can be effectively used in memoirs, travel writing, and autobiographies. Techniques such as sensory details engage the five senses to create a more relatable experience. Other devices used include metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, each contributing to the richness of the imagery and emotional resonance in the text. Overall, descriptive writing serves to draw readers into the world created by the author, enriching their experience and understanding of the narrative.
Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing creates a vivid image in the reader’s mind. Using descriptive language is like painting a picture of a character, setting, or scene. This type of writing contrasts sharply with concise writing, which conveys an idea using as few words as possible. Descriptive writing creates a mood using adjectives and adverbs and figurative language, such as sensory details, metaphors, similes, and personification. It often invokes the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
Background
Descriptive writing is commonly used in fiction, such as novels, short stories, and poems. Novels are divided into genres, such as science fiction, horror, historical fiction, fantasy, realistic fiction, mysteries, westerns, and young adult fiction. They are usually about eighty thousand words but may be much longer or as short as forty thousand words. Short stories are like novels but have a word count that is around fifteen hundred words. Poems are much shorter, and often use descriptive language such as this poem, “The Eagle,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1851):
He clasps the crag with crooked hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him craws:
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
While descriptive writing is not appropriate in some types of nonfiction, such as textbooks, reports, academic writing, and professional writing, it may be used in memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, and travel writing. Descriptive writing is not used in news articles, but it is occasionally used in feature stories.
Unlike concise writing, descriptive writing creates a detailed image of a person or place. Consider this concise sentence: “The car drove past the woman.” To write this sentence descriptively, more details need to be added, such as “The bright red sports car flashed by so quickly that the young woman saw only a blur.” The second sentence gives the same information as the first but creates a more vivid picture.
In this excerpt from the novel Ethan Frome (1911), Edith Wharton writes descriptively:
In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees.
Overview
Descriptive writing techniques include sensory details, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.
Sensory Details
Sensory details use the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). Those referring to sight are the most common:
- The enormous shaggy dog plodded toward me happily, grinning while its tongue hung out of its mouth.
- The weeping willow trees hung over the pond, their branches like arms stretching to touch the surface of the water.
These sentences contain sensory details related to sound:
- Bang! The vase hit the wall, its pieces hitting the wooden floor like hail.
- The piercing sound of the police sirens in the city was like a pounding headache lingering throughout night and day.
Sensory details about smell are used in these sentences:
- The delicious smell of baked goods permeated the air inside the bakery.
- I inhaled the early damp morning air.
Sensory details related to taste are used in these sentences:
- The thick chocolate cake was heavenly, so sweet and rich.
- The spicy meat burned my mouth and made my eyes water.
This sentence contains sensory details related to touch:
- The blazing sun made the sand hot. I reached into my bag and took out my rubber flip-flops, which felt cool on my scorched feet.
Metaphors
A metaphor compares two things by stating that one thing is the other. Metaphors are used in each of these sentences:
- Her job is her life.
- My mother is a lifesaver.
- Their relationship was a raging fire.
In these lines from one of Emily Dickinson’s poems, she compares fame to fickle food:
Fame is a fickle food Upon a shifting plate Whose table once a Guest but not The second time is set. (From “Fame is a fickle food,” 1659)
Similes
A simile compares two things using the words “like” or “as.”
These are some examples of similes:
- Walking up the hill was like climbing Mount Everest.
- Juan ran as fast as lightning.
- My hands were as cold as ice.
This is an example of a simile in the novel Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott:
Jo quite glowed with pleasure at this boyish praise of her sister, and stored it up to repeat to Meg. Both peeped and criticized and chatted till they felt like old acquaintances.
Hyperbole
When writers use hyperbole, they exaggerate to make a point. The following are examples of hyperbole:
- I haven’t seen Kate in a hundred years.
- Sydney has the worst headache in the world.
- We drove a million miles to get to the beach.
- That trip made me tired enough to sleep forever.
This excerpt from Mark Twain’s memoir, Old Times in the Mississippi (1876) contains an example of hyperbole:
I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.
Personification
When writers use personification, they give human qualities to something non-human. These are examples of personification:
- The cat smiled wide before dropping the mouse at her feet.
- The wind howled through the night.
- The old car grumbled and groaned before it died.
In these lines from William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807), the narrator personifies daffodils:
A host, of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Alliteration
Alliteration uses the repetition of consonant sounds to create an effect. Note the alliteration in this excerpt from Emily Dickinson’s poem about a snake, believed to have been written in 1865.
Sweet is the swamp with its secrets, Until we meet a snake; 'T is then we sigh for houses,
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia means using words for sounds. The words make the sound the author wishes to convey. Examples are “Pop!” “Bang!” “Bam!” “zoom,” “cha-ching,” and “buzz.”
Bibliography
Albright, Evelyn May. Descriptive Writing—Scholar’s Choice Edition. Scholar’s Choice, 2015.
“How to Use Descriptive Writing to Improve Your Story.” Master Class, 3 Sept. 2021, www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-use-descriptive-writing-to-improve-your-story. Accessed 24 May 2024.
Kramer, Lindsay. “How to Take Descriptive Writing to the Next Level.” Grammarly, 25 June 2021 www.grammarly.com/blog/descriptive-writing/. Accessed 24 May 2024.
Rozelle, Ron. Description & Setting Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Believable World of People, Places, and Events. Penguin Publishing Group, 2005.
“What Is Descriptive Writing?” All Assignment Help, 27 Dec. 2023.