Descriptive Writing: Naming Your Subject
I enjoy descriptive writing, because this is the point at which a writer becomes a painter; presenting the world to his/her readers in words. I love painting too, so that’s the reason for it being my favourite writing skill.
There are several skills involved in writing descriptively, these are as follows: naming what you want to describe, selecting and including sensory details, using comparison and using various descriptive techniques.
In this lesson, we will focus on the first skill; naming what is to be described.
You need to ask yourself if it is a place or person or thing, or idea, or item or is it an event that you want to describe. This is important, because there are different ways of describing different things, because you focus on detail in a different way.
It also involves making choices about things that speak to the writer, who plans on recreating this item/person/place/event with words. So what you do here is very important. Also involved in the naming of objects is making a list of adjectives you wish to attach to this object/place/item/person/event. So description can be fun to write.
For example, suppose I decided to write about my front door, these are some of the words that come to mind: brown, rectangle, old, wooden, rough etc
Tip 1: A great way to prepare for this stage of the descriptive process is to look around you and choose something you like that you see and begin to explore it. Ask yourself, if you were to write about it, what would you say? How do you feel about this thing?
Tip 2: Play the game ‘I Spy’ describe the thing you see, it’s a fun way to begin the process. These activities help you to become more conscious about your environment, and that’s the beginning.
Lesson 1 will end here, but you will have lesson two soon. In lesson two we will go onto the second skill: creating/using sensory details.
I hope to see you again soon. Cheers!
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