Customer Reviews

Description (Elements of Fiction Writing)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those books that people don't really think they need, until they pick up a copy and start flipping through it. Description is one of the most fundamental things a writer has to do, yet so many people who write do it poorly.

Monica Wood takes the idea of description, and makes it an easy to use 'technique' in your writing. This is a necessary guide for all of us who like to write. The idea of show, don't tell, is pushed here, but not to the point of being obnoxious. Wood shows how to use all of the senses in your descriptions to make your reader feel as though he/she were there. That's key. 'A big, red house..' isn't description. ...a house the color of dried blood, with a roofline so tall that the clouds seemed to have to part to get around the peak..' now that's description!

I have a few reference, or technique books on my shelf, and this one is one that I open most often. I want to make sure my readers understand where they are and what they're seeing, smelling, and feeling in the story. This book teaches the reader how to do just that.

A man building his own coffin is," this is one of the examples of wisdom in Monica Wood's book. Much of this material is common sense, if you think about it, but Wood puts it into words that help us think through our own thoughts. She asks us to focus our descriptive style through character, and relate how the scenes and settings impact the characters or are how they are interpreted by the characters. Make the metaphors and adjectives character inspired, not author inspired.

She organizes her book around chapters that deal w/ Description in relation to Dialogue, Forward Motion, Point of View, ect, so this would be a handy resource to pull off the shelf if you are stuck in any given scene, and you want advice for better ways to convey the characters and to move the plot. She gives examples of good description and bad description, and if you're like me, you'll cringe reading the bad examples because they look so familair in my own writing. The only reason I don't give it five stars is I would have liked to have seen more descriptive examples from different genres, instead of incessant "modern-era Great American novel" type of prose. Some addenums on science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, historical fiction, would have helped.

**Summary: Description is a great book for the aspiring author who has already studied Stein on Writing or Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

I've read many books on writing novels, books that pound in messages like show-don't-tell and avoid flashbacks like the plague. Stein on Writing and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers were great books for me when I was writing my first manuscript - and I still refer to them regularly - but now I want to advance my writing further.

Description is great for that. Instead of saying "Show-don't-tell," description teaches methods for creating a balance between showing and telling. While Wood doesn't recommend using flashbacks, like most other books, she provides tools to make flashbacks more seamless. I like her balanced approach, and I consider this a great book for the slightly more advanced author.

I only gave this book four stars because I didn't think that the examples she used were the epitome of great writing, but her examples always got her point across.

This book is well organized, easy to read, and gives very good insight and techniques for a better description. But it isn't the best book on this subject because it is too short and ignores or touches lightly some parts of the descriptive projects.

Buy it only if you want a slightly look at description, for a deeper analysis and more serious aproach, try "Word Painting", wich is much better.

I've read all the books in the Elements of Fiction Writing series and this is how I'd rank them.

"Scene & Structure" "Characters & Viewpoint" "Beginnings, Middles & Ends"

The above three books are invaluable -- must reads. They are the best of the series, in my opinion, and are packed with good information on every page. Well-done.

"Conflict, Action & Suspense" "Description" "Plot" "Manuscript Submission" "Setting"

The above five books are good, solid reads. Again, they contain good information and cover the subject decently.

"Voice & Style" "Dialogue"

To me, the last two books need to be rewritten. They are by far the weakest of the series. Both suffer from an annoying style, particularly Dialogue, and both are very skimpy on real information. Neither one is very helpful.

This is the order in which I'd recommend reading them.

As someone who enjoys feeling as if I'm part of the story, I found this book to be a very detailed, very informative how-to. Through extensive examples, Wood leads the writer through the pitfalls and the perks of using description. If you've already read other books on the subject, you will find some things repeated here, but take a look anyway. By choosing passages to make a point or by rewriting a passage several times, Wood's view is inciteful and fresh. As a fiction writer myself I would strongly recommend it to any one who wants to bring their world to life.

I saw this book in the store, and was impressed by both the introduction and the varied topics, that cover the different aspects of writing quite well. Having now finished the book, I'm glad that I bought it.

I always consider books about writing as guidelines, ideas of what you should consider, and not hard rules. Monica Wood has a slightly different idea of what description should be like than I have. The effect of some of her examples on me was different than what she intended. But that's one of the good things about this book. It illustrates its points well enough to let you judge for yourself if you like the style. There are many ideas to consider here, all of them written in clearly and with good examples.

I found this book a good inspiration to go back to an old story of mine, rewrite parts, and add details. Not because I found anything really wrong with my own descriptions, but because it made me think more about my characters, and how small things I encounter in my life can be incorporated into a fantasy story set in another time and place. This shows how a good book about description can cover everything from setting to characters, and inspire you not just where your style is concerned.

BTW, the book I have is an older (1995) hardcover edition.

Incredibly useful for the beginning writer who has the mistaken idea that everything of importance is done in scenes. Wrong!! Good description can add color and life to your work. The technique of interior monologue, which blurs the line between "showing" and "telling", is especially useful. The bias against description is another example of stupidity in the age of video. A novel is not a television script and should not be treated like one. This book is worth your time.

As a writer, I've always considered description to be my strong suit, so I read other books in this series before I picked up this one. I wish now that I'd read it first. Monica Wood clearly articulates the difference between strong description and weak description and provides so many examples that it is easy to see her point, and easy to make the leap in your mind and change your way of thinking about description. I realize now that although I've always been good with imagery, my images lacked purpose. I'm a photographer by nature. I've been busy presenting my readers with snapshots when I should have been painting art for them. My images were clear, vivid and real, but they told my reader little about the underlying structure of either my characters or my theme. My descriptions created texture, but didn't incite emotion or meaning. I looked at my manuscript and realized I've got 70,000 missed opportunities. So far, I've revised three scenes and already I know my characters better. The writing is tighter, the characters sharper. Those scenes pack so much punch now that I'm faced with the opposite problem I had before- how to let the story breathe for a bit between those scenes. Pacing is going to be a different challenge for me now.

After being honest with myself and finding my very well written descriptions still lacking something I ordered this book. And groaned as I opend it to the old 'Show, don't tell.' But it had a twist! I COULD tell--as long as I did it well. But discovered this is more than a book on setting description. It is a book on describing everything from dialogue through back flashes, forward flashes--with the best description of the various view points and why to use them when. And then a wonderful discussion about how details and style help or hurt your story.