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.
