Description. Whether you live for it or skip over it, most novels can’t exist without it. But how do we paint word pictures as vivid as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night?
We’re taking a short break from our thirteen-part Character House series to discuss ten ways to use specific, vivid, and concrete details to bring your stories to life.
Why is Description Important?
Description comprises the sensory details of characters, settings, objects, and activities. These details serve at least four purposes in a story.
Description creates images.
On the most basic level, description produces clear images in readers’ minds, allowing them to envision the story for themselves. Specific details contribute to the illusion of reality—the impression that the events of the plot actually happened—which increases the readers’ emotional investment in the story.
Description generates emotion.
Details can also convey emotions by establishing a mood. In a cheerful scene, trees may dance in the gentle breeze, but in a scary scene, those same trees might claw at the midnight sky with jagged branches. The words themselves bring forth an emotional response in the audience.
Description reveals personalities.
Description can showcase characters’ personalities by showing rather than telling. A room full of shiny awards and towering trophies can indicate a character who values achievement. As another example, a cluttered desk may imply a busy or disorganized owner. Details about appearance, clothing, and body language can speak volumes about characters’ values and priorities.
Description indicates plot movement.
Finally, sensory details can signal changes in the plot and character arcs. Suppose Allie enjoys baking with her grandma in a warmly lit kitchen that smells like cookies and brims with family photos. But after her grandma dies, the same kitchen becomes dark and empty, with nothing but a few crumbs on the counter. In this way, the setting itself represents Allie’s sadness and grief.
As these four points illustrate, description doesn’t exist solely for its own sake; it exists to serve the story. If you feel that your first draft contains too much or too little description, remember that you can always fine-tune it in edits. The following ten tips will help you describe your settings, scenes, and characters with the best words possible!
10 Tips on Description
1. Envision the scene with all five senses.
When writing or editing a scene, imagine yourself in the setting and slow down to notice all the sensory details: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Other pertinent details may include temperature, weather, lighting, and any background people (such as the spectators in a crowded stadium).
A scene on a farm might include the sunlight peeking over the barn (sight), the lowing of cows (sound), the earthy scent of dirt (smell), sweet apple cider (taste), and humid air (touch). By contrast, a scene in a big city may include towering buildings (sight), honking cars (sound), a faint smoky odor (smell), rich morning coffee (taste), and the smooth glass of a door handle (touch). These details paint pictures in readers’ minds and highlight the contrast between the two settings.
Even similar settings can display dissimilar details. Different restaurants will have different lighting, decorations, music, smells, and general atmosphere (cramped vs. spacious).
You don’t have to describe all five senses in every scene—this would become overwhelming. Instead, choose particular details that create the precise images you intend.
2. Be specific.
Concrete details engage the readers’ imaginations and allow them to experience the story along with your characters. Here are some examples of transforming vague descriptions into specific ones:
- Generic: She was beautiful.
- Specific: Her eyes sparkled, and her silky black hair cascaded down her back.
- Generic: He looked confused.
- Specific: He wrinkled his forehead, a crease forming between his eyebrows.
- Generic: The house was large.
- Specific: The pillared entrance opened into an echoing foyer lit by a silver chandelier.
To convert generic descriptions into specific ones, you can identify and revise the following areas:
- Vague words: Imprecise words, such as beautiful, confused, and large, are difficult to picture because they have different meanings to different people. My idea of large might be different than yours. Instead, use specific details to convey your intended meaning of each of these words. In the third specific example, the house isn’t merely large; it’s large enough to boast a pillared entrance and an echoing foyer.
- Generalities: The three generic descriptions obscure individual details by making generalizations about the person or setting. Instead, concentrate on specific features—the eyes, the forehead, the foyer, the chandelier, etc.
- Linking verbs: Verbs that indicate existence, such as am, are, is, was, and were, may signify weak descriptions. In the first generic example, the character wasn’t doing anything interesting; she just was. By contrast, the specific description includes strong verbs: her eyes sparkled, and her hair cascaded. This tip leads to my next point.
3. Describe things in action.
Readers are more engaged when you describe characters, objects, and settings with strong verbs. In real life, we often notice details when movement draws our attention to them. Combining description with action reveals the details naturally and keeps the pace moving.
As mentioned above, weak verbs indicate mere existence or possession, such as was, were, or had. By contrast, strong verbs convey action, such as jumped, shimmered, or twirled. In the following examples, I’ve underlined the weak verbs and the strong verbs.
- Weak verb: Her blonde hair was worn in a French braid.
- Strong verb: She tossed her blonde French braid over her shoulder.
- Weak verb: The room had harsh lighting.
- Strong verb: Michael squinted in the harsh light.
- Weak verb: There was a desk in the corner with books on it.
- Strong verb: Open textbooks cluttered the desk in the corner.
As you can see, using vivid verbs can make your descriptions more dynamic.
4. Make the descriptions meaningful.
Choose specific details that communicate aspects of the plot, theme, characters, and emotions. Consider the following two character descriptions:
- She had brown hair, blue eyes, and a green shirt.
- Her patterned skirt fluttered in the breeze.
Both examples are concrete—readers can easily picture them. However, the first description doesn’t convey anything beyond mere appearance. Generic details about hair, eye, and shirt color don’t reveal anything about the character’s personality.
On the other hand, the second example uses appearance details to convey the character’s personality. The multicolored skirt implies that she’s creative and enjoys colorful fabrics, and the verb fluttered implies that she’s carefree and cheerful. Instead of only describing appearance, these meaningful details point to deeper facts about the character, which allows the description to do double duty.
Consider what information you want to communicate, and brainstorm sensory details that can convey that information in a concrete way.
5. Pay attention to word connotations.
While a denotation is the dictionary definition of a word, a connotation refers to the emotions associated with that word.
Although both cozy and cramped can describe small spaces, cozy has a positive connotation, conveying comfort and warmth. By contrast, cramped has a negative connotation, hinting to discomfort and stress. Likewise, brilliant and blinding both describe bright light, but brilliant has a positive connotation, associated with happiness and glory. On the other hand, blinding has a negative connotation, implying that the light is painfully bright.
The idea of connotations will help you apply the following two tips.
6. Choose descriptive words that fit the tone of the scene.
As mentioned in Tip 5, choosing words that carry the correct connotations can give your scenes a clear emotional tone.
Think about movies. Directors use light and color to produce purposeful emotions. A war movie might use a darker color palette and dramatic lighting, while a romantic comedy may display vivid colors and bright lighting.
As the author, you are the director of your story. Instead of light and color, you can use details and word choice to create specific emotions.
Suppose a cheerful scene describes a character watering her garden. The descriptions might mention floral scents, glowing dewdrops, and butterflies flitting around honeysuckle plants. However, if that same character enters the garden after losing a loved one, she may notice more dismal details: the drooping lilies, the weeds choking out the tomato plants, or the trees sighing in the wind. In both cases, the details match the intended emotional tone of the scene.
7. Describe things through your point-of-view (POV) character.
Whether you’re writing in first person or third, your POV character’s interests, emotions, and background will determine the word choice and details included in the narration.
A detail-oriented POV character may notice minute observations, such as the design of a soldier’s armor or the subtle gestures that indicate someone is lying. Meanwhile, a poetic character might use artistic expressions, such as describing the sunset as “a watercolor palette of peach, crimson, and lavender.”
Similarly, the emotions of your POV characters will influence the details they report. Once again, understanding connotations can help you choose the best words. A character who fears the ocean might say that the churning waves crashed onto the shore. The words churning and crashed imply danger and dread. To the contrary, a character who loves the ocean might describe the rhythm of the waves lapping on the shoreline. This word choice conveys calmness and peace.
8. Use similes and metaphors with restraint.
Figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, can enrich your description. A simile compares two unlike things by using like or as: “The flower petals twirled like graceful dancers.” Meanwhile, a metaphor compares two unlike things without using like or as: “Diamonds sparkled in the snow.” The snow doesn’t contain literal diamonds, so this is a figurative comparison.
Well-chosen similes and metaphors fit the tone of the scene and the emotion of the narrator. Consider this simile: “The sweater warmed me like a blanket.” This positive comparison shows that the character appreciates the sweater. By contrast, consider this simile: “The sweater strangled me like a bristly rope.” This negative comparison hints that the narrator is uncomfortable in the sweater.
However, awkward comparisons can leave readers scratching their heads. If you compare clouds to laundry lint or eyes to blue M&Ms, these strange phrases may pull the audience out of the story (although odd comparisons can be used for humorous effect).
When using figurative language, try to avoid cliché similes and metaphors. Instead of saying that someone disappeared into thin air or that a task is as easy as pie, try to replace these trite expressions with fresh phrases.
9. Use references.
If possible, visit the location you’re describing. Take photos, videos, and notes about sensory details. My 2018 novel, The Time Travel Team: The Great Historic Mystery, contains a scene set in Thomas Edison’s lab. To write this scene, I visited the replica of Edison’s lab in Greenfield Village, a historical complex in Dearborn, Michigan. This visit revealed details that I never would have imagined on my own, such as the wall-length shelves of chemicals and the steam-powered machinery (see the photo below). When I sat down to write, I could incorporate these real-life details into my scene.

My photo of Thomas Edison’s lab replica at Greenfield Village.
If an in-person trip isn’t feasible, you can do research, find reference photos, and interview people who have visited the location. The Time Travel Team: The Great Historic Mystery features a world of time travelers known as Intelligentsia. To describe this fictional location, I collected numerous reference photos of futuristic cities.
For historical settings, reputable books and online articles can provide a wealth of information about a time period. Additionally, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have compiled online thesauruses for urban and rural settings, weather, and textures. These thesauruses contain sensory details, sample descriptions, and possible sources of conflict for numerous different settings.
You can also combine multiple real-life locations into an imaginary setting that serves your purposes. In one of my contemporary projects, I combined two of my favorite restaurants to create a fictional one. This approach gives you more creative freedom: if you need your fictional restaurant to serve chocolate cake for dessert or host weekly music nights, you can add these details without worrying about real-life inaccuracies.
Using reference photos or videos can also help you describe people and activities. Many authors enjoy finding photos of people who resemble their characters. (If you do this, it’s usually a good idea to change a few details so that you don’t describe someone recognizable.) Similarly, videos of any activity you can imagine—rock climbing, ice skating, building a fire, performing CPR, etc.—are readily available online.
10. Avoid over-description.
After learning all these tips, you may be eager to use description to transport your audience into your story world! But be careful—describing every last detail may slow the pacing to a crawl.
If you’re writing a first draft, don’t worry about excessive description. Write to your heart’s content! But when you edit, examine your descriptions for unnecessary details:
- Have you already described this setting or person in a previous scene?
- Does this detail add to our understanding of the story?
- Could a detail be inferred rather than stated? For example, is it necessary to tell us that the kitchen has a refrigerator?
- Would the character notice this detail right now? During a chase scene, would the protagonist really pay attention to the color of the car that nearly hit him?
Adding unimportant details can confuse readers about which details are actually relevant to the plot. By contrast, including only the most important descriptions will direct the audience’s attention to the significant details.
Practical Exercises
- Imagine an important setting in your novel. Jot down some details for each of the five senses: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures. You don’t have to use all these details in your scene, but this exercise can help you think of unique descriptions.
- Take a page from your current work-in-progress, and underline all the weak verbs (is, was, were, have, has, had, etc.). Do your best to convert the weak verbs into strong, active verbs: “The room was dark” can become “Darkness shrouded the room.”
- Choose a setting in your story, and write two different descriptions of it based on two opposing emotions. How would a happy person describe the city park? How would a sad person describe it?
- Choose a setting in your story, and write down a few sentences for how each of your major characters would describe it. What details and word choice would each character use?
The Keys to Immersive Description
To write vivid description, use specific sensory details that reflect actions, emotions, personalities, and attitudes. Choose strong verbs and nouns that have the correct connotation (positive or negative) for the intended mood. Never underestimate the power of a well-chosen simile or metaphor. During the editing process, refine your descriptions by including only the most important details.
When you choose significant, concrete details, your word pictures will leap off the page, immersing the audience in a story world that they won’t want to leave.
Next week, we’ll continue our series on the Character House, discussing the Walls of Dialogue. Unlock the secrets of writing conversations that brim with character and crackle with conflict!
What are your top tips for writing description? What’s your favorite setting in your novel? Share your thoughts in the comments!
You May Also Like
- The Character House, Pt. 8: Residents and Relationships
- The Character House, Pt. 7: Furniture and External Traits
- The Character House, Pt. 6: The Walls of Action
- The Character House, Pt. 5: The Walls of Dialogue
- 10 Ways to Write Descriptions That Leap Off the Page
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