Writing Excuses 6.11: Making Your Descriptions Do More Than One Thing

Let's talk about some ways in which your descriptions can do more than just describe. You're not just trying to tell us what the room is like. You're also setting the mood, telling us about the POV character, and establishing some of our progress through the story. Howard (who rarely works in prose) offers some unexpected insight by talking about the way panels are composed in his comic. Mary offers even better insight by pulling the same principles through the domain of puppetry. Dan tells us how some of this is done by filmmakers. But yes, we finally do come back around to prose and how to accomplish these things with words. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Shades of Milk and Honey, written and narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal Writing Prompt: Go someplace, use all five of your senses, and for thirty minutes write about the place you're in. Not the people though. Just the place. And Because It Needs To Be Google-able: "Mary Robinette Koala" -- it might be more than just a pronunciation guide. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.