3 Ways to Write a Vivid Description

Using our imagination is one thing. Dreaming big is too! To actually write down what we see in our heads, while using imagery and sensory, is a whole other story (catch my play on words?). Here are three tips on how to write a vivid description:

1.Close your eyes, see it all and then write down step-by-step that which is happening. You can write simple sentences or make a list of movements/actions and events. You can even doodle or draw pictures if that helps. For example:

-Jamie

-Fridge

-Ice cream

-Empty apartment

-Depression

Then, describe in complete sentences, more detail and more eloquently:

Jamie opened the fridge only to find one ice cream box, cookie dough to be exact. He snatched it as quickly as if someone else would steal it. There was no one else. There was only an empty, unfurnished apartment which Jamie had just moved into. The furniture that was scheduled to be delivered in this corner of downtown, New York, was delayed. So...there Jamie was, sitting on floor, in the middle of the night, eating ice cream, while trying to forget his broken marriage and dreading the work day, ahead.

2.Writing a story is like writing poetry. Use your figurative language for example, metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia.

Jamie heard strange sounds coming from the apartment next-door: knock, knock, slam (onomatopoeia)! The noise startled him to the point where he felt like a deer (simile) caught in headlights. He just stopped eating his ice cream and stared at the wall where the noise had come from.

3.Use your vocabulary depending on the target readership. Nouns, verbs and adjectives are crucial to vivid description. For example:

He heard a muffled conversation and was tempted to put his ear against the wall adn listen in. This would be the most entertainment he would be experiencing as his wide, flat screen TV was miles away, in his old New Jersey home. For a moment, he hesitated at the thought that this would be eavesdropping, unethical, just...plain...wrong. He did it anyway and listened to the conversation that would change his life forever:

Remember not to describe every detail. Describe that which is most relevant to the particular point of the story. Sometimes, even dialogue incites the reader´s imagination/fantasy.

Happy Writing!