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A specific community for original shortform and longform writing, stories, worldbuilding, and other stuff of that nature.

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What do you do when trying to describe something very specific? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Many times when writing, I get a very specific image in my head of the way I want something to look, or the way I want something to move. Particularly with actions where objects are moving in a very specific way, I want to describe them accurately so that most readers would see the same thing that I'm seeing in my head. The problem is, I don't want to come off as sounding too technical (the object slid along its Z axis and suddenly stopped and rotated 45 degrees on its Y axis), and I also don't want to be so vague that a later sentence contradicts what they were seeing in their head.

Is this just a psychological thing that I need to get over and stop worrying about, and just write to the best of my ability and edit when I hear critiques/comments from readers, or is it a skill that I need to improve?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Hobbyist/wannabe writer, but here are my two cents. I actively try not to convey my mental picture exactly the way I picture it. The only exception is for first impressions of people, like a specific fashion style or characteristic that says something about the person. If I find that something else depends on a very specific mental picture, then I’ll try to rewrite it so that it doesn’t.