Elements of Writing Fiction - Description (Elements of Fiction Writing) (Paperback)

by Monica Wood (Author)
Key Phrases: descriptive interruptions, reminiscent narrator, dialogue tags, Version Two, Abby Ross, Version One (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
When writers make their descriptions fresh, they move their stories forward and imbue their work with atmosphere. Monica Wood helps squeeze the greatest flavour from language and provides insight into how detail, editing, style, point of view and original word depictions can be used to create unforgettable images that will stick with readers for a lifetime.

From the Back Cover
Description is most powerful when it's visible, aural, tactile. Make your descriptions fresh and they'll move your story forward, imbue your work with atmosphere, create that tang of feeling that editors cry for and readers crave. Monica Wood helps you squeeze the greatest flavor from the language. She segments description like an orange, separating its slices to let you sample each one.

You'll learn about:

- Detail, and how you can use description to awaken the reader's senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight

- Advancing story using only relevant description--and how to edit out sluggish, reader-stopping writing

- Style, and the use of description to create a mood that matches your story's content

- Point of view --how selecting omniscient, first person or third person limited narrative influences the descriptive freedom you have

- Creating original word depictions of people, animals, places, weather and movement

Wood teaches by example, developing stories with characters in various situations, to show you how you can apply description techniques.

You'll also see samples of work by such noted writers as Mark Helprin, Anne Tyler and Raymond Carver. And you'll find the dos and don'ts, lists and descriptive alternatives to common verbs and nouns, and tips for editing your work.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (July 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898799082
• ISBN-13: 978-0898799088
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,977 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Reference Guide for Writers, New and Old, July 25, 2003

By	chemikalguy "chemikalguy" (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews

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.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A man thinking about death is not a story..., July 11, 2004

By	J A W (Norman, OK United States) - See all my reviews

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Description, June 7, 2005

By	book lover (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

**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.