Learn to Observe the World.
As one reader, Marilyn, noted, the role of a writer has certain things in common with that of a detective: "I keep reminding myself of Sherlock Holmes's complaint to Dr. Watson," she wrote. "'You see, but you don't observe.'" This is a good starting point for thinking about description. Before you can describe something, you must be able to see it.
Be Specific.
"Vagueness is often our first impulse when we're getting things down," writes Chris Lombardi in the Gotham Writers' Workshop's Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School. But it's specificity that gives our descriptions power. Learn how to be more specific by studying Annie Proulx's descriptions of Quoyle in the first chapter of The Shipping News.Avoid Clichés.
Avoiding clichés is part of being specific, as we observed above, but it's worth devoting more room to them and to their opposite, truly original writing. Stephen King offers these examples of what not do to: "He ran like a madman, she was as pretty as a summer day, Bob fought like a tiger . . . don't waste my time (or anyone's) with such chestnuts. It makes you look either lazy or ignorant." However, when you discover a cliché in your work, don't beat yourself up. Just think of it as an opportunity, a flashing neon sign: "Insert brilliance here."Ask Yourself Questions.
Ask yourself the most naïve questions possible to access the sensory cues that conjure the situation for a reader (and that in life we absorb subconsciously): What sounds evoke the scene for you? What smells? What images? What physical responses would you have to this situation? And if questions don't work for you, find some other way to visualize the scene. If you can't picture it, how will you enable your reader to do so?
