lights, camera, description!
“I’ve noticed one massive problem for me with writing... any time I try to describe something I get really paranoid im just bloating my story ... I despratly [sic] want to describe them but none of my writing teachers ever bothered to talk about it in a positive manner and im sick of the “SHOW DON’T TELL, never describe” routine.
Does anyone have any advice on describing?”
A redditor asked about writing description, admitting s/he is sick of the old “show, don’t tell routine”. I’ve talked about this before— about how that advice was originally meant for screenwriters— but a lesser-known aspect of it is how your readers do their part decorating the set.
Another subreddit I chat in a lot is r/Better Call Saul. Have you seen this show? Lots of us love it because it's such a terrific example of what's known as visual storytelling— moments when the camera shows the story. Like when a character makes his (soon-to-be-ex) wife a cappucino... and she picks it up and dumps it into her travel cup without even noticing that her husband put a peace sign latte art on top of it.
“Show, don't tell” was originally meant as advice for screenwriters, to get them thinking in terms of the visual storytelling I mentioned above. As an author, you have the opportunity to do it all: visual storytelling, dialogue and description (expository writing). Such power!
In writing, YOU are the camera, the actors, the set design and everything in between. Imagine yourself directing a movie: in the scene you’re “filming”, would you insist something look a certain way? Would you tell the cinematographer to take care that something be lighted just so, or ask that a specific prop be used, a certain costume be worn? If yes, that’s the thing you should be describing in your writing.
If, on the other hand, your scene includes plenty of elements that really could be any which way— you leave the rest of your crew to sort them out— well, your readers' imaginations are the rest of your crew. If you've trained them well (meaning: your writing is appropriate in mood, vocabulary, etc) then they will probably fill in your scene with appropriate stuff, all on their own. Yes, you should be on guard for that one guy who might put a stuffed moose in the hospital room set... but overall, people are pretty good at this.
