Descriptive writing: Helpful hints
Young people eager to write not only for their school essays and also
to write to the newspapers ask us to explain aspects of descriptive
writing. As a teacher and a journalist I would like to help them from
what I learnt in the course of my career. Even grown up writers to the
Artscope short story page may get some ideas from this column.
Let’s begin:
As we know the first thing we must do before trying our hand in
descriptive writing is to observe people, places, things, scenes and the
like closely and accurately. When I was a boy my father used to take me
for a walk and reaching the destination would ask me what and what I
observed on the way.
I try to recollect not always successfully but to some extent the
things that were registered in my mind. That way he trained me.
Therefore it is also n necessary to train the memory to remember them in
details.
When writing selection of details counts. We must consider only those
details that will interest the reader most or will most successfully
achieve the effect that we are aiming at and which will best express the
idea we wish to project.
As opposed to Realism packing of too many details in our description
would result in what is known as Naturalism. If you have read the French
writer Emilie Zola’s works in English translation (Germinal, Nana (for
instance) you would class them as examples of writing classified under
Naturalism writing.
Another important factor that we must remember is that descriptions
should express an attitude. In other words it should indicate our own
opinion. We must choose details that fit in with that attitude.
In creative writing feelings could also be expressed. For instance,
we could by our description make the readers amused, thrilled, impressed
and the like. We can check our own writing whether it makes us angry,
suspicious and awe-struck.
A description could be made more effective if written from a point of
view. We must choose words carefully and pick adjectives that honestly
and accurately express our feelings about what we describe. We must
avoid hackneyed or overworked words and which have lost their exact
meanings. Such examples are invariably, evidently, apparently and the
like.
Some contributors to the newspapers overload their piece of writing
with too many adjectives and adverbs that do not ring true. While
working for the newspapers and subbing their copies, I have found this
redundant words that mar good writing. If we choose the right noun and
the right verb, we can do without hackneyed adjectives and adverbs.
Figures of Speech
What was known as Rhetoric is now called Figures of Speech. In the
development of language, the art of Rhetoric came into use. It is the
art of using language to persuade or influence others. Legal luminaries
are good at that.
A number of deliberate devices were used which became marks of style
in speech and writing. Such Figures of Speech are familiar to us. The
most familiar are the metaphors and similes.
They can be used to enrich and enliven the language.
Sometimes they are used as mere decorations to evoke a picture only
lightly connected with the subject as in poetry. But they serve to give
to pleasure. Please do not get me wrong. I am not gender-prejudiced.
I have found that women writers all over the world in English and in
my language show mastery in this device than the men writers.
They say that the French language brings out the nuances through this
device. In prose writing one must admit that metaphorical language makes
the description clearer.
In descriptive prose or verse abstract words should be avoided as far
as possible. The language must be specific and concrete. In other words
as Joseph Conrad who mastered the English language even though he was a
Polish said- ‘the aim should be to make you hear, feel and see’.
Some of the classical writers like Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner,
Joseph Conrad, Virginia Wolfe, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, and Nabakov
among others write well that is pleasure to read and appreciate their
power of vivid and veils description. Let’s enjoy selected masterpieces
of the past and then move on to contemporary writing to benefit fully.
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