On Writing

Description vs. Feeling

[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”https://wordsmithholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/bookshelf-413705_1920.jpg” credit=”Pixabay” align=”left” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”]

Sometimes a writer decides to describe items; a bookshelf filled with classics, a few popular authors, and a dictionary.

Sometimes a writer decides to describe feelings; a bookshelf of proven ideas, untested ones, and the long unvisited prefixes memorized years ago for the ACT exam.

Descriptions of items provide a snapshot of the moment. An inventory a detective gives to a murder scene.

Descriptions of feelings give the reader a moment to reflect and react to the items. The feelings they experienced in a similar situation.

The reader craves feelings because they provide a chance to share the character’s experience. Rewrite descriptions to include feelings. Otherwise, the writing becomes a list.

© 2016, Michael Shawn Sommermeyer. All rights reserved.

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