Writing Passionates discussion
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I'm stuck!
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Marlena
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Sep 30, 2010 04:52PM

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Read more...Read discriptions of that and then go out and try to desribe what you actually really saw and felt....
I don't know if you're into art, but maybe try to draw it? It will make you think harder about the details of what it's supposed to look like.

Imagery is just something that you'll have to practice to get right. Of course, the suggestions above are helpful. One other thing is to try to use a varied vocabulary when describing. If it's repetitive, then readers will find themselves skimming and impatient to just get to the end of all the words.
Another tip is to not put a ton of description into action scenes. Description tends to slow down the pacing. Nobody really cares what somebody's hair looked like after getting punched; they want to know how they reacted.
Another tip is to not put a ton of description into action scenes. Description tends to slow down the pacing. Nobody really cares what somebody's hair looked like after getting punched; they want to know how they reacted.
Mmhmm. Descriptions should be unique as possible. Make interesting comparisons. You know, like the first sentence of Uglies. "The sky was the color of cat barf." BRILLIANT!
And I agree about fight scenes, too. They're very tricky because they have to feel like they're happening in "real time" ... although you don't want them to go by too fast, either. Usually in fight scenes I kind of focus on the main character's inner monologue … Like, "Oh crap, I'm gonna die, what's going to happen next?" But I don't think my fight scenes are very good. I try to avoid them as much as possible. :P
And I agree about fight scenes, too. They're very tricky because they have to feel like they're happening in "real time" ... although you don't want them to go by too fast, either. Usually in fight scenes I kind of focus on the main character's inner monologue … Like, "Oh crap, I'm gonna die, what's going to happen next?" But I don't think my fight scenes are very good. I try to avoid them as much as possible. :P
I don't really write action scenes... I'm most comfortable in realistic fiction, which doesn't involve a lot of fights. Well, not physical ones.
Bleh. They're hard. I guess that's what I get for writing too much SF/F. >_< I'm trying to write more RF nowadays, though.

lol! Yeah, that's pretty much what mine are like too. Or they're too complicated, so I read them and try to picture the action in my head and that's when I realize it makes no sense at all ...
I don't care if this is critiqued or not; it is forty-seven years old:
on your own
being repeated ad nauseam that humans
exist to cohort
social animals
as trillions of cells
receive trillions of smells
as herd or rutting beasts
it is in order
but he is neither,
living his life in a nest in a tree
looking down contemptuously
as one specimen follows the next
tuned into their leader
waiting merely for the right time to plop into a coffin
it is not natural for him
he could amuse himself with one torn-out chapter
from one pedestrian book
all the way on a probe to pluto
or neptune
it was he then who was banished
to a tiny island in a vast sea
and lived happily ever after
godless and goldless
his own principality.
on your own
being repeated ad nauseam that humans
exist to cohort
social animals
as trillions of cells
receive trillions of smells
as herd or rutting beasts
it is in order
but he is neither,
living his life in a nest in a tree
looking down contemptuously
as one specimen follows the next
tuned into their leader
waiting merely for the right time to plop into a coffin
it is not natural for him
he could amuse himself with one torn-out chapter
from one pedestrian book
all the way on a probe to pluto
or neptune
it was he then who was banished
to a tiny island in a vast sea
and lived happily ever after
godless and goldless
his own principality.
I like it too! Very unique and interesting writing. And I'm the same as Book ... I'm not very good at poetry either, so I have a high level of respect for writers who can execute it well. Good job!