More Research Tips

More Research Tips for Descriptive Writing Projects

We strengthen our writing by using descriptive details that match and develop the topic.
Today let’s talk more about research for descriptive writing.

Research like it’s a treasure hunt to find your perfect topic, or gathering information to expand an interest area. When you land on that topic, consider these points for fresh, active, and believable descriptions:

•    Pursue topics that resonate with you, and inspire you to write

•    Search out topical details, then write them in an organized way to provide the reader a visual pattern they can imagine

•    Be specific with factual details, always fact check to confirm the accuracy

•    Choose details that play a role in your piece, building its credibility

•    When working with a stationary subject—stay with the focus; its texture or its inherent qualities

•    Write to make the subject realistic & relatable

•    Use verbs that don’t need assistance from an adjective to convey action

•    Strong verbs can depict movement: storms, slings, rising, burst, sprawled, staggered, creak, squawk, crackle, shriek, clatter, tinkle, jingle, thud

•    Linking verbs do not convey action. They express a state of being and require an adjective to make sense. If not necessary, linking verbs cause clutter—avoid them

•    State of being—no action—linking verbs include: would, should, can, must, might, may

•    Consider using the narrative, first person point of view, as yourself—write what you see, hear, taste or smell. And, write those details in the same order you notice them.


Idea Categories to investigate and expand:
•    Transportation, information technology, art history
•    Social issues to champion: eldercare, childcare, education
•    Hero’s caring for others
•    Setting up a Website, a Business Platform and Branding
•    Social Media: evaluating and choosing the best platform for your industry, groups, & reaching readers often


Elevate your descriptive writing:
•    Use metaphors, similes, and comparisons
•    Sight, Sound, Taste, and Texture words to add dimension
•    Details that differentiate
•    Stay on point and write with clarity and economy


Earlier Post links in this series—Descriptive Writing for Fiction and Non-Fiction:
Make it with Specificity: https://www.writersonthemove.com/search?q=make+it+with+specificity
Write it with Research I: http://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/05/write-it-with-research.html

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her writer’s website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/  
Visit her caregiver’s website and read the Mom & Me memoir at: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/
Facebook: Deborah Lyn Stanley, Writer    https://www.facebook.com/deborahlynwriter/?modal=admin_todo_tour

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Tips for Figurative Speech

 

 

Tips for Figurative Speech for Descriptive Writing

We strengthen our writing by using descriptive details that develop the topic; and
enhance with metaphors, similes, and comparisons, known as figures of speech. Today, let’s name figures of speech and consider how to use them in our writing.

We define a figure of speech as any intentional deviation from a literal statement or from common usage that emphasizes, clarifies, or embellishes. Poets use figurative language somewhat naturally. An associate of mine finds more insight into connections in poetry than I do.

What can we do to expand our repertoire to incorporate figures of speech in our writing if it does not come easy? Let’s review a few and get ideas popping.

Metaphors, similes, hyperbole, paradox, analogy, allegory, and symbols are a sampling, and are defined by Merriam-Webster’s below, with added comments. Strunk and White caution writers to use figures of speech sparingly, and always give the reader a chance to recognize comparisons before moving on to another.

Metaphors: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another, suggesting a likeness between them. It’s an imaginative transfer from one thing carried over to another. It’s an intuitive perception of similarity from items that are not.

Similes: a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced by like or as. It not only makes a definite comparison but explains it with simplicity.

Hyperbole: is an extravagant exaggeration, stating an outlandish comparison.

Paradox: is a statement that seems contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. It can suggest complex emotion and provides mystery to our writing. It is the presentation of unlike ideas, which invites the reader to solve a puzzle.

Analogy: is a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unalike, a comparison based on such resemblance. Using analogies helps to clarify or reinforce our meaning, particularly for complex abstract or technical ideas.

Allegory: is the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations, about human existence in a story or art. It’s metaphorical in each element of person, place, thing or idea.

Symbols: are things that stand for or suggest something else because of relationship, association, convention or accidental resemblance. Not a meaning or a moral, but points to it. A symbol can be a symbolic gesture.

The challenge is the avoidance of sounding contrived.
Try figurative parts of speech and see what might work for you.

Added recommendation:
Keys To Great Writing, Revised and Expanded, by Stephen Wilbers

Earlier Post links in this series—Descriptive Writing for Fiction and Non-Fiction:
Make it with Specificity:  https://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/04/decriptive-writing-with-specificity.html
Write it with Research II:  https://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/06/more-research-tips.html
Write it with Senses and POV Tips: https://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/07/senses-pov-tips-descriptive-writing.html

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her writer’s website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/  
Visit her caregiver’s website and read the Mom & Me memoir at: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/
Facebook: Deborah Lyn Stanley, Writer    https://www.facebook.com/deborahlynwriter/?modal=admin_todo_tour

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Decriptive Writing With Specificity

We strengthen all of our writing by using descriptive details: even more so with specificity.

Our goal is to grow our observation skills, both specific and general. Being observant is essential for all writers; it creates relatable writing and gives the texture of reality. So, in this we are building our descriptive muscles and research skills.

To build up our descriptive writing:

• We use detail to express areas of importance; big picture, specific purpose, or differentiation,
• We use words that are vibrant, essential, and focused,
• We use metaphors, similes, and comparisons to tell the story,
• We use sense words and articulate a picture,
• We stay on point and write economically

Research is involved for our fiction or non-fiction projects.
Here are a few points to consider:

• Is the setting a place you have traveled or lived? Is it from a life experience? If so, a lot of your work is done, it’s relatable because you’ve been there. You know the landscape, the business environment, the social makeup.

• Consider writing in real time, describing the scene in such a way to bring your reader along, present for the journey. Describe what you see from where you are to develop the scene.

• What’s the time-period, which century? Descriptions will vary according to the time; i.e. street lighting by gas lamps or bulbs, roadway construction, metropolis or rural location, east or west coastline, piper-cubs or jet stream travel.

• Be willing to adjust your project plan as you go. Is it reachable or does it need revision?

Need ideas?

• Use life experiences and pull short sections to launch your story,

• Use one word prompts to free write and spark ideas,

• Where is your favorite place? Is it a beach town, or mountain village? Start there and chose the best memory or daydream,

• Books like “Where Do You Get Your Ideas” by Fred White, published by Writer’s Digest, could be just the thing to help launch your project.

Previous Post links in this series—Descriptive Writing for Fiction and Non-Fiction:
1)    Make it Personable & Tangible: https://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/02/descriptive-writing-for-fiction-and-non.html
2)    Make it Realistic: https://www.writersonthemove.com/2020/03/descriptive-writing-make-it-realistic.html

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her writer’s website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/
Visit her caregiver’s website and read the Mom & Me memoir at: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/
Facebook: Deborah Lyn Stanley, Writer    https://www.facebook.com/deborahlynwriter/?modal=admin_todo_tour

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Self-Editing: Will it Ever Get Done?

Meet Abi Wunder. She is the star of the
Abi Wunder mystery trilogy. Book 1, Secret in the Stars,
is available on Amazon. Book 2, Secret in the Mist,
will be available soon. The outline for Book 3,
 Secrets of the Heart, is done.
Writing will begin soon.

By Linda Wilson     @LinWilsonauthor

Since publication of my last two articles about self-editing on  the Writers On the Move blog—please refer to the links at the end of this article—I continue to read and re-read my current work in progress, Secret in the Mist: An Abi Wunder Mystery. As has been said, you want to be absolutely sure that your manuscript is ready before you send it to your beta readers and professional editors, then on to publication. After all the editing work I’ve done on this book, it’s still not ready. How do I know? My re-thinking is still going on. 

During one of the passes I made through the manuscript, I found a surprising edit I hadn’t yet caught. In some cases, I wrote in generalities rather than being more specific. I’d been aware of this “rule” for as long as I’ve been writing; have heard it stated by many editors and fellow writers. 

Advice from “The Discovering Ideas Handbook”, written by John Tagg, 2003, from Palomar College, San Marcos, California, states this rule clearly:

Use Concrete, Specific Language 

Whenever possible, use concrete, specific language. The best way to do this is to write about individuals wherever possible, and concrete things rather than abstract concepts. Write about teachers, students, and schools rather than education and learning. Or say what you want to get across about education or learning by showing us what teachers and students do in schools or what apprentices do in learning plumbing. Specifics are almost always clearer than generalizations--it's easier to tell exactly what you are saying. And the concrete is almost always easier to follow that the abstract. It may not be easier to write specifically and concretely, but it produces writing that is easier to read.  

Use Examples

The easiest, and usually the best, way to keep your writing specific and concrete, as illustrated in the previous paragraph, is to use specific examples whenever possible. An example, of course, is simply a case or instance of something. A specific example is a particular instance. So to give a specific example of technology would be to write about particular people using a particular machine. To give a specific example of any human activity would require that you write about individual people. To give a specific example of teaching history, as in the example above, would be to describe what a particular teacher or students do. An easy rule of thumb to test the specificity of your writing is to ask whether you write about individual people in each paragraph. If you don't, you are generalizing too much. Give examples of every point you make, in most if not all of your paragraphs, and make your examples clear and forceful by making them specific. Write about people and what people actually do, not just about ideas or concepts.

Specific Language in Fiction

So, imagine my surprise when I found these glitches in my book and strove to improve them:

Original sentence: 

The marsh went back to normal, and the marsh sounds—insect buzzes and clicks and frog croaks—started up again.

Edited version:

“The marsh has a life of its own. Can you tell?” Jess said.

Cattails and tall grasses shot out of the water. Leafy green plants grew wild around the edge. Dragonflies skimmed the surface. Cicadas and crickets buzzed and clicked, and every now and then a bull frog croaked.

Original:

Jess tried the door. Locked. “Let’s look around. Maybe she [the ghost] went outside."

They shined their lights around the front of the building, but found nothing.

They headed out back, past the barn. The moon shone bright over the open field, but there was no ghost in sight.

Edited:

Jess moved to the door and jiggled the doorknob. “Of course. The door is locked.” 

“Hurry. Let's look around back.” Abi got to her feet. “She couldn’t have gone far.” 

They raced along the path, overgrown with weeds and grass, shining their lights at the bushes and trees, past the barn. Knee-high weeds scraped against Abi’s legs, leaving scratches that stung, but she kept going. The path gave way to an open field about the size of a football field, surrounded by a split-rail fence that had seen better days. 

Quickly, Abi scanned the field, lit by the moon, full and high in the sky by now, forgetting all about her stinging legs. But the field was empty. There was no ghost. 

What Will You Find in Your Search?

These are a few examples of how I’ve added texture, immediacy, and a picture for my readers’ minds, in place of generalities.

A search for specifics in place of generalities I think deserves a pass through your manuscript. As you can see, I’m happy I discovered these what I consider lackluster passages and worked to improve them before it was too late.

For more self-editing tips, please visit:

https://www.writersonthemove.com/2024/01/keep-your-self-editing-on-track.html

https://www.writersonthemove.com/2022/09/one-last-edit-re-think-before-submitting.html

Source: https://www.palomar.edu/users/jtagg/handbook/specific.htm 

One day soon, Secret in the Mist,
An Abi Wunder Mystery
will be published!

Linda Wilson is the author of the Abi Wunder Mystery series and other books for children. Her two new releases are Waddles the Duck: Hey, Wait for Me! (2022) and Cradle in the Wild: A Book for Nature Lovers Everywhere (2023). You’ll find Linda on her Amazon author page, on her website at LindaWilsonAuthor.com, and on Facebook.