Tips for writing vivid descriptions when writing short stories?

Answer 1

My best advice is DON"T. Most of what I read here is so badly overwritten and filled with purple prose that when I finish reading it, I need insulin. It is a short story. Keyword - short. Skip the color of the sunsets and waves dashing against the rocks. Remember what Shakespeare said "Imagine when we speak of horses that you see them". Everyone knows the colors in the sunset. You can choose one or two interesting words to describe the sky - cotton candy clouds or some other metaphor or simile. But please stay within reason. You do not need to tell me in great detail about your character Wakuli's torn and patched pants or wild black hair ... You aren't writing for Elle Magazine. Find brief, interesting metaphors or similes and let it go at that.

I have probably read a thousand prologues here that go into great detail about the sky, the person's clothes, the water, the freezing rain. None of which have a lick to do with the plot. Remember the plot?

What I'm looking for when I read a story is content, not long chains of purple prose over describing the sky. Over description is a total turn off. You will find editors love to red pen that stuff - with little notes next to it saying "meaningless".

After a while you will learn to write tightly and conservatively. You will know when to toss in a simile and when to let it go for your readers to imagine. Don't take that joy away from your readers. That is why they read and don't watch movies.

I defer to Ernest Hemingway here. "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof sh!t detector.”

----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

Mellifluous writing when it comes to description takes a matter of melioration and commitment and the motivation to appease the readers attention to detail. A matter of show and tell. You have to be able to make a description read more like a copy of the original thought that you have had for a certain made up place or a figment of the reality that you yourself have experienced. What is your definition of description opposed/adherent with the real meaning of description? What would be the purpose of you writing the description? Who is the audience? What knowledge would they have of the description that you are writing? Lastly but not at all least, what's your strategy?

I'll tell you the strategies that are used:
1. appeal to the senses (smell taste, emotion?)
2. identify the special features (What makes it different from others? ex.Amreican flag Dominican Replublic flag etc.)
3. select vivid detail (Stars and stripes, Single star, etc.)
4. arrange the details a pattern. (Patriotic, powerful, etc.)

There is so much more to description as there are to any other form of writing a short story, of for that matter, a story.
Good luck in writing.

Answer 3

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RE:
Tips for writing vivid descriptions when writing short stories?

Answer 4

Read more short stories, but don't stop there!...

Read EDIT until the time comes that you may actually need some description in a longer piece. THEN maybe the following.

***Write descriptions of where you are... where you are now, where you might be later, descriptions of home, of friends' places, of waiting in a store, being in an elevator...

Try to write a description of each of those places I mentioned; make a list if you want, and carry a notebook if you need to take notes.

Observe. See everything there is to see about these places, and more places that you'll think of, and make notes as needed.

Then write your descriptions again. See if you can add more and more life and color into each description, especially the elevator.

Really look, really see, then really work at writing it down the way it pleases you.

It'll be a fun project that will help you out as well.
Luck--

Answer 5

I'm beginning to see why she's the top contributor. yes, brief, well-chosen descriptions work best. if you can pick one or two super-specific things to mention, the description will work just fine.

for example, if you're describing an old car, instead of saying:

"It was the car Jane had for twenty years. The seats were losing their padding, the ceiling had holes, the paint was chipped, the doors didn't lock, and the exhaust pipe rattled."

You get the point across just as easily by saying:

"Jane's car had survived 200,000 miles and a dozen coffee spills."

Both say the car is old and falling apart but the second one is crisp and a bit more creative. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Vivid descriptions can't really applied to short stories--unless you take a powerful element and use *that* as your weapon of choice throughout the duration of the piece.

Short stories really are just piecemeal literary elements designed to run a short course of about 2000 words. In ten pages or less, you're not going to be able to hold the reader as effectively as you would a novella or a novel in its entirety.

Just tell the story.

If you want to do vivid descriptions, save it for those two. Otherwise, just concentrate on the basic storyline; adding only base descriptions and run with that. :0)

Answer 7

Instead of using lots of big, fancy words, use medium or kind of big words to create phrases that describe the scene.

Answer 8

appeal to all of the five senses:
sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell