A Quick Tip for Aspiring Writers

   Okay, so what I'm about to share is something that I've found really helpful and I hope you find it helpful as well.

     "DESCRIBE THINGS!"   "PAINT A PICTURE IN YOUR READERS HEAD!"

    Ever heard people say things like the above two statements? Well, there's a lot of truth to both of those statements, but the trick, is using them correctly. When I started writing, I wanted to describe things without much effort, so I did what most beginning writers do. I described the things that were easy to describe. For example, I described things like grass as green, cars as fast, and cake as sweet. The problem with this is that your reader already knows that grass is green. So the tip I'm giving you, is to learn to chose what you describe carefully. Don't describe the cake as sweet because everyone knows cake is sweet. Unless the cake is bitter, or salty, or something that's not normal, don't bother describing it. Don't tell the reader the grass is green, we already know that. Of course if the grass is purple, then you should describe it.
     So as beginning writers, we tend to describe things that don't need describing, and then we don't describe things that should be described. We might say something like... "The man standing on the green grass was getting mad." To become a better writer, we need to learn to drop the 'green grass' statements, and learn to describe other things. So the man on the lawn was mad... How was he mad? Was he clenching his jaw? Was he turning red? Was he simply getting quiet? Or was he flying into a rage, yelling and swinging a golf club at everything in sight?
         In summary, don't describe things the reader knows, describe things they don't know. I hope this was helpful!
    Until next time, this is Priscilla J. Krahn reminding you to stay thankful!:)