Reedsy has some fab live video workshops. I recently attended the “Writing Strong Descriptions” workshop (view the replay). Some of my big takeaways include:
- Power is in the word choice. Especially in the nouns and verbs. Be minimal with modifiers.
- Good writing is clear writing. Choose interesting words and details, but do it in the fewest words possible.
- Cut “Weasel words” aka fluff words. “Just” “only” “-ly” adjectives. Don’t jar the reader out of the flow of the story.
- Description reveals something about the character. The strongest descriptions teach us something about how the character perceives things.
The description I submitted (they read it live :-D) is included below:
Prompt: Write 150 words of pure description based on photo prompt (shown in video linked above and cover photo). No action, no dialogue, no reflection, no internal narrative.
Frost-kissed shores and half-frozen mist mingle in the murky haze of early autumn. A monochrome palette gives briefest glimpses of what’s on the horizon: A seasons-long trudge through the shuddering cold. Still and quiet, not a breath of wind whispering between branches. With clouds so thick, the impossibility of daybreak mocks the sand and stone, little lapping waves, and a velvet stretch of evergreen. Inescapable loneliness winds through bark and needles, disguising itself as a ripple on the surface of unbroken water, hunkered down, waiting. Echoes of yesterdays and the silence of tomorrow’s struggle against the tumultuous nothingness of crisp fall skyline at a forgotten stretch of sand.
