Word painting.

I recently checked out some books from the library to help me with my writing. One book I checked out offers assistance with writing more descriptively, a skill I feel needs to be polished before I can submit stories worthy of publication. This book is entitled Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan.

Reading this book gave me fresh insight on what’s involved in the art of description, and it’s a far more involving process than I ever imagined. The author refers to a story as a fictional dream and there’s an art to drawing the reader inside to give them a first-hand glimpse of all that takes place. This approach to description was just what I needed to hone my craft.

The book has plenty of advice on creating vivid mental imagery and constructing effective sentences that keep the story flowing. There are also numerous techniques discussed to implement description without slowing down the story. Along the way the author includes sample passages from other literary works and makes note of the techniques used by their authors. The author herself uses a very lively and poetic writing style that keeps the material interesting to read.

Excellent book. I think I got a lot out of it.