{"id":3304,"date":"2020-12-18T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T12:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=3304"},"modified":"2025-05-09T20:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T19:30:02","slug":"how-to-write-descriptions-and-create-a-sense-of-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-write-descriptions-and-create-a-sense-of-place\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write Descriptions And Create A Sense Of Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your first job as a storyteller is a simple one, and a crucial one. You have to get your passengers into your train \u2013 your readers into your story. Only then can you hope to transport them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that crucial first step doesn\u2019t have much to do with characters or story or anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What matters first is this: your fictional world<\/a> has to seem real. It has to grip the reader as intensely as real life \u2013 more intensely, even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing descriptions that seem<\/em> vivid, with the use of evocative language, is therefore essential. The buildings, cities, places, rooms, trees, weather of your fictional world have to be convincing there<\/em>. They have to have an emphatic, solid, believable presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big ask, right? But it gets harder than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because at the same time, people don\u2019t want huge wodges of descriptive writing. They want to engage with characters and story, because that\u2019s the reason they picked up your book in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So your challenge becomes convincing readers that your world is real . . . but using only the lightest of touches to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so easy, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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