PAST WRITING TIPS
APRIL 2024
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
Use Body Language
The unspoken word speaks volumes. Let a tilted head, a chewed lip or a clenched fist tell your readers what a character is feeling, thinking or battling to control. Pay attention to the context. Body language can take on different meanings in different situations.
Mac locked eyes with Jack, the CEO. He clenched and unclenched his fists over and over. His face grew redder with each contraction. Suddenly an uppercut landed on Jack's chin sending him to the carpet. Mac turned on his heel and stalked out of the conference room.
Unblinking, narrowed eyes, also known as hard eyes, suggest anger and aggression. Flushing or turning red can mean embarrassment or anger. More context is needed. Did Jack embarrass Mac? Slugging Jack displayed anger and aggression, Stalking out of the conference room showed disdain and lack of remorse.
Watch for more body language meanings on the Writing Tips page.
Work-related training, Dixie Gilbert
MARCH 2024
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
Detailed description brings your writing to life. Close your eyes. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you smell? Use figurative parts of speech to paint a picture that pulls your readers into your story.
In her March 2024 Newsletter Margaret Lucke lists three sure-fire ways to improve your descriptive writing.
1. Weave the description into the action. Instead of He wore polished black boots, how about He reached down to brush a smudge of mud from the toe of his polished black boot.
2. Keep the description in the point of view of your POV character. What would this person notice about another person or place? What's their opinion about the details they notice.
3. When choosing descriptive details, be specific. Instead of rain, try downpour or drizzle. Instead of shoes, how about sneakers or stilettos? The more specific the detail, the more vivid the picture in your reader's mind,
Margaret Lucke is an accomplished author, editor and teacher. Her latest short story, "Open House" was selected to be included in Invasive Species, an anthology from the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime. Visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.
Try turning It was dirty and hot, into a descriptive scene.
The gritty grey dust boiled up around the tires and worked its way into every crack and crevice of the well-used cars, is more descriptive than Dust got in the cars.
Rolling the windows down was a mistake. Dust billowed in, coating the drivers' eyes with a cataract-like film. It marched into their nostrils like a column of ants. If the drivers were foolish enough to open their mouths, grit sand-blasted their teeth and settled in their throats. Better to be hot than be attacked on another front by the desert.