Fiction That's Realer Than the Real Thing

How do you fill your book with descriptions and characters that are so vivid, that the reader is utterly convinced in their reality? Do you stick to what you know is true? No way! You are a writer! You are not bound by those rules! Nonetheless, there are a few ways to get the facts.

1. Experience: I swam with sharks!

2. Observation: I watched someone swim with sharks.

3. Conversation: I heard someone talking about swimming with sharks.

4. Imagination: I imagined swimming with sharks.

5. Research: I read about swimming with sharks.

Often you'll hear that experience is the most valuable, but I don't believe that. Doing something is no guarantee you can convey the feeling in writing. Get your facts however you choose, (Read my post "Using Your Senses" for tips) and then let your imagination take over.

Using your senses

Have you ever watched a baby explore his or her environment? First, they try and grab, then they stick it in their mouths! They learn quite a bit about the qualities of an object by tasting and feeling it, much to our alarm! Stuffing food up their noses, banging pan lids, splashing water out of the tub, babies glory in living life with all their senses. And we writers can learn a great deal from babies!

Now that we're older, we explore more with our minds and search new worlds in books. But that doesn't mean we've changed--we still use our senses.The trick of a writer is to put down simple words that trick the reader into thinking they actually are using their ears, nose, skin, tongue and eyes. A good description does just that by choosing just the right detail.

Try writing down everything you can think of for a scene using all your senses. Now, choose one detail for each sense. From those details, choose one that shows something very close up, one detail that shows something within about twenty feet and finally, one detail that focuses on the scene as a whole, seen from a slight distance.