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Dazzling Description: Painting the Perfect Picture
How do you create a fictional world that readers will want to visit? How do you paint a picture that springs to life on the page?William Bernhardt explains how to use description and setting to enhance your story without slowing the pace. Bernhardt discusses showing without telling, providing descriptive details that inform character, and integrating visuals and action with “stealth description.” In his direct, no-nonsense style, Bernhardt explains how to use all five senses to create a fully realized portrait.
William Bernhardt is the bestselling author of more than fifty books, including the bestselling Daniel Pike novels. Bernhardt is also one of the most sought-after writing instructors in the nation. He has received the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award, which is given “in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large.” In 2019, he received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Red Sneaker Writing Center provides a free e-newsletter, podcast, workshops, retreats, and an annual conference to help writers achieve their goals. What’s a red sneaker writer? A committed writer seeking useful instruction rather than obfuscation and attitude. Red sneakers get the job done and so do red sneaker writers, by paying close attention to their art and craft, committing to hard work, and never quitting.
Are you a red sneaker writer? If so, this book is for you!
William Bernhardt is the bestselling author of more than fifty books, including the bestselling Daniel Pike novels. Bernhardt is also one of the most sought-after writing instructors in the nation. He has received the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award, which is given “in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large.” In 2019, he received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Red Sneaker Writing Center provides a free e-newsletter, podcast, workshops, retreats, and an annual conference to help writers achieve their goals. What’s a red sneaker writer? A committed writer seeking useful instruction rather than obfuscation and attitude. Red sneakers get the job done and so do red sneaker writers, by paying close attention to their art and craft, committing to hard work, and never quitting.
Are you a red sneaker writer? If so, this book is for you!
- GenresWriting
114 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 23, 2020
27 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
William Bernhardt
99 books513 followersWilliam Bernhardt is the author of over sixty books, including the bestselling Daniel Pike and Ben Kincaid legal thrillers, the historical novels Challengers of the Dust and Nemesis, three books of poetry, and the ten Red Sneaker books on fiction writing.
In addition, Bernhardt founded the Red Sneaker Writers Center to mentor aspiring writers. The Center hosts an annual writers conference (WriterCon), small-group seminars, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-weekly podcast. More than three dozen of Bernhardt’s students have subsequently published with major houses. He is also the owner of Balkan Press, which publishes poetry and fiction as well as the literary journal Conclave.
Bernhardt has received the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He has been nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award eighteen times in three different categories, and has won the award twice. Library Journal called him “the master of the courtroom drama.” The Vancouver Sun called him “the American equivalent of P.G. Wodehouse and John Mortimer.”
In addition to his novels and poetry, he has written plays, a musical (book and score), humor, children stories, biography, and puzzles. He has edited two anthologies (Legal Briefs and Natural Suspect) as fundraisers for The Nature Conservancy and the Children’s Legal Defense Fund. OSU named him “Oklahoma’s Renaissance Man.”
In his spare time, he has enjoyed surfing, digging for dinosaurs, trekking through the Himalayas, paragliding, scuba diving, caving, zip-lining over the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest, and jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. In 2013, he became a Jeopardy! champion winning over $20,000.
When Bernhardt delivered the keynote address at the San Francisco Writers Conference, chairman Michael Larsen noted that in addition to penning novels, Bernhardt can “write a sonnet, play a sonata, plant a garden, try a lawsuit, teach a class, cook a gourmet meal, beat you at Scrabble, and work the New York Times crossword in under five minutes.”
In addition, Bernhardt founded the Red Sneaker Writers Center to mentor aspiring writers. The Center hosts an annual writers conference (WriterCon), small-group seminars, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-weekly podcast. More than three dozen of Bernhardt’s students have subsequently published with major houses. He is also the owner of Balkan Press, which publishes poetry and fiction as well as the literary journal Conclave.
Bernhardt has received the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He has been nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award eighteen times in three different categories, and has won the award twice. Library Journal called him “the master of the courtroom drama.” The Vancouver Sun called him “the American equivalent of P.G. Wodehouse and John Mortimer.”
In addition to his novels and poetry, he has written plays, a musical (book and score), humor, children stories, biography, and puzzles. He has edited two anthologies (Legal Briefs and Natural Suspect) as fundraisers for The Nature Conservancy and the Children’s Legal Defense Fund. OSU named him “Oklahoma’s Renaissance Man.”
In his spare time, he has enjoyed surfing, digging for dinosaurs, trekking through the Himalayas, paragliding, scuba diving, caving, zip-lining over the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest, and jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. In 2013, he became a Jeopardy! champion winning over $20,000.
When Bernhardt delivered the keynote address at the San Francisco Writers Conference, chairman Michael Larsen noted that in addition to penning novels, Bernhardt can “write a sonnet, play a sonata, plant a garden, try a lawsuit, teach a class, cook a gourmet meal, beat you at Scrabble, and work the New York Times crossword in under five minutes.”
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 5, 2020
Dazzling Description: Painting the Perfect Picture by William Bernhardt, is another of those rare finds. Dazzling Description is a book that needs to be read and studied by every aspiring fictioneer. The book’s only 110 pages, but the erudition that Bernhardt pack in those pages is the equivalent to what one might expect to find in a course costing hundreds of dollar. Like with a course costing several hundred dollars, a person will only benefit from the course if she or he puts in the work. To get the most out of this illuminating masterpiece, the reader must not only read the text, but do the exercise. This book contains an abundance of exercises that will enable the reader to put in practice what Bernhardt is teaching.
Dazzling Description is a craft book that is easy and fun to read. With the exercises, Bernhardt gets you to apply what he is teaching to your current work in progress. You could use anything that you have already written in working the exercises, but they work best if you apply them to something you have already finished.
This is one of those books that you will want to keep close at hand or quick, easy reference as you work on your current WIP. I know I will.
Dazzling Description is a craft book that is easy and fun to read. With the exercises, Bernhardt gets you to apply what he is teaching to your current work in progress. You could use anything that you have already written in working the exercises, but they work best if you apply them to something you have already finished.
This is one of those books that you will want to keep close at hand or quick, easy reference as you work on your current WIP. I know I will.
September 5, 2020
A great writer teaches like a master!
August 9, 2021
Love the book
I want to.write my book after reading this book. It describes ways to write to leave your reader wanting mpre
I want to.write my book after reading this book. It describes ways to write to leave your reader wanting mpre
June 26, 2022
Learned a few things that I didn't know before. Quite informative for a short book. Definitely recommend.
July 11, 2024
Great stuff- informative, funny, straightforward; I learned a lot!
September 18, 2025
Quick read, but loaded with good info
March 31, 2025
Upgraded from 3 to 4 stars after a re-read and another major manuscript under my belt. Yes, he suggests minimalist approach to description, but his advice is sound and easily breezed through as a reminder.
Original Review:
I have enjoyed several other books in the Red Sneaker series and found them extremely helpful, even re-reading the one on story structure after finishing the first draft of my book. I thought I would get a lot of insight in how to make my manuscript sparkle during edits, but there weren't that many things I found myself underlining. There were a few helpful things, but most boiled down to not over-describing things and to be strategic about what you do provide.
Original Review:
I have enjoyed several other books in the Red Sneaker series and found them extremely helpful, even re-reading the one on story structure after finishing the first draft of my book. I thought I would get a lot of insight in how to make my manuscript sparkle during edits, but there weren't that many things I found myself underlining. There were a few helpful things, but most boiled down to not over-describing things and to be strategic about what you do provide.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews