description of book creative writing

A Guide to Descriptive Writing

by Melissa Donovan | Jan 7, 2021 | Creative Writing | 8 comments

What is descriptive writing?

Writing description is a necessary skill for most writers. Whether we’re writing an essay, a story, or a poem, we usually reach a point where we need to describe something. In fiction, we describe settings and characters. In poetry, we describe scenes, experiences, and emotions. In creative nonfiction, we describe reality. Descriptive writing is especially important for speculative fiction writers and poets. If you’ve created a fantasy world, then you’ll need to deftly describe it to readers; Lewis Carroll not only described Wonderland (aff link); he also described the fantastical creatures that inhabited it.

But many writers are challenged by description writing, and many readers find it boring to read — when it’s not crafted skillfully.

However, I think it’s safe to say that technology has spoiled us. Thanks to photos and videos, we’ve become increasingly visual, which means it’s getting harder to use words to describe something, especially if it only exists in our imaginations.

What is Descriptive Writing?

One might say that descriptive writing is the art of painting a picture with words. But descriptive writing goes beyond visuals. Descriptive writing hits all the senses; we describe how things look, sound, smell, taste, and feel (their tactile quality).

The term descriptive writing can mean a few different things:

The act of writing description ( I’m doing some descriptive writing ).
A descriptive essay is short-form prose that is meant to describe something in detail; it can describe a person, place, event, object, or anything else.
Description as part of a larger work: This is the most common kind of descriptive writing. It is usually a sentence or paragraph (sometimes multiple paragraphs) that provide description, usually to help the reader visualize what’s happening, where it’s happening, or how it’s happening. It’s most commonly used to describe a setting or a character. An example would be a section of text within a novel that establishes the setting by describing a room or a passage that introduces a character with a physical description.
Writing that is descriptive (or vivid) — an author’s style: Some authors weave description throughout their prose and verse, interspersing it through the dialogue and action. It’s a style of writing that imparts description without using large blocks of text that are explicitly focused on description.
Description is integral in poetry writing. Poetry emphasizes imagery, and imagery is rendered in writing via description, so descriptive writing is a crucial skill for most poets.

Depending on what you write, you’ve probably experimented with one of more of these types of descriptive writing, maybe all of them.

Can you think of any other types of descriptive writing that aren’t listed here?

How Much Description is Too Much?

Classic literature was dense with description whereas modern literature usually keeps description to a minimum.

Compare the elaborate descriptions in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy with the descriptions in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (aff links). Both series relied on description to help readers visualize an imagined, fantastical world, but Rowling did not use her precious writing space to describe standard settings whereas Tolkien frequently paused all action and spent pages describing a single landscape.

This isn’t unique to Tolkien and Rowling; if you compare most literature from the beginning of of the 20th century and earlier to today’s written works, you’ll see that we just don’t dedicate much time and space to description anymore.

I think this radical change in how we approach description is directly tied to the wide availability of film, television, and photography. Let’s say you were living in the 19th century, writing a story about a tropical island for an audience of northern, urban readers. You would be fairly certain that most of your readers had never seen such an island and had no idea what it looked like. To give your audience a full sense of your story’s setting, you’d need pages of detail describing the lush jungle, sandy beaches, and warm waters.

Nowadays, we all know what a tropical island looks like, thanks to the wide availability of media. Even if you’ve never been to such an island, surely you’ve seen one on TV. This might explain why few books on the craft of writing address descriptive writing. The focus is usually on other elements, like language, character, plot, theme, and structure.

For contemporary writers, the trick is to make the description as precise and detailed as possible while keeping it to a minimum. Most readers want characters and action with just enough description so that they can imagine the story as it’s unfolding.

If you’ve ever encountered a story that paused to provide head-to-toe descriptions along with detailed backstories of every character upon their introduction into the narrative, you know just how grating description can be when executed poorly.

However, it’s worth noting that a skilled writer can roll out descriptions that are riveting to read. Sometimes they’re riveting because they’re integrated seamlessly with the action and dialogue; other times, the description is deftly crafted and engaging on its own. In fact, an expert descriptive writer can keep readers glued through multiple pages of description.

Descriptive Writing Tips

I’ve encountered descriptive writing so smooth and seamless that I easily visualized what was happening without even noticing that I was reading description. Some authors craft descriptions that are so lovely, I do notice — but in a good way. Some of them are so compelling that I pause to read them again.

On the other hand, poorly crafted descriptions can really impede a reader’s experience. Description doesn’t work if it’s unclear, verbose, or bland. Most readers prefer action and dialogue to lengthy descriptions, so while a paragraph here and there can certainly help readers better visualize what’s happening, pages and pages of description can increase the risk that they’ll set your work aside and never pick it up again. There are exceptions to every rule, so the real trick is to know when lengthy descriptions are warranted and when they’re just boring.

Here are some general tips for descriptive writing:

Use distinct descriptions that stand out and are memorable. For example, don’t write that a character is five foot two with brown hair and blue eyes. Give the reader something to remember. Say the character is short with mousy hair and sky-blue eyes.
Make description active: Consider the following description of a room: There was a bookshelf in the corner. A desk sat under the window. The walls were beige, and the floor was tiled. That’s boring. Try something like this: A massive oak desk sat below a large picture window and beside a shelf overflowing with books. Hardcovers, paperbacks, and binders were piled on the dingy tiled floor in messy stacks. In the second example, words like overflowing and piled are active.
Weave description through the narrative: Sometimes a character enters a room and looks around, so the narrative needs to pause to describe what the character sees. Other times, description can be threaded through the narrative. For example, instead of pausing to describe a character, engage that character in dialogue with another character. Use the characters’ thoughts and the dialogue tags to reveal description: He stared at her flowing, auburn curls, which reminded him of his mother’s hair. “Where were you?” he asked, shifting his green eyes across the restaurant to where a customer was hassling one of the servers.

Simple descriptions are surprisingly easy to execute. All you have to do is look at something (or imagine it) and write what you see. But well-crafted descriptions require writers to pay diligence to word choice, to describe only those elements that are most important, and to use engaging language to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Instead of spending several sentences describing a character’s height, weight, age, hair color, eye color, and clothing, a few, choice details will often render a more vivid image for the reader: Red hair framed her round, freckled face like a spray of flames. This only reveals three descriptive details: red hair, a round face, and freckles. Yet it paints more vivid picture than a statistical head-to-toe rundown: She was five foot three and no more than a hundred and ten pounds with red hair, blue eyes, and a round, freckled face.

10 descriptive writing practices.

How to Practice Writing Description

Here are some descriptive writing activities that will inspire you while providing opportunities to practice writing description. If you don’t have much experience with descriptive writing, you may find that your first few attempts are flat and boring. If you can’t keep readers engaged, they’ll wander off. Work at crafting descriptions that are compelling and mesmerizing.

Go to one of your favorite spots and write a description of the setting: it could be your bedroom, a favorite coffee shop, or a local park. Leave people, dialogue, and action out of it. Just focus on explaining what the space looks like.
Who is your favorite character from the movies? Describe the character from head to toe. Show the reader not only what the character looks like, but also how the character acts. Do this without including action or dialogue. Remember: description only!
Forty years ago we didn’t have cell phones or the internet. Now we have cell phones that can access the internet. Think of a device or gadget that we’ll have forty years from now and describe it.
Since modern fiction is light on description, many young and new writers often fail to include details, even when the reader needs them. Go through one of your writing projects and make sure elements that readers may not be familiar with are adequately described.
Sometimes in a narrative, a little description provides respite from all the action and dialogue. Make a list of things from a story you’re working on (gadgets, characters, settings, etc.), and for each one, write a short description of no more than a hundred words.
As mentioned, Tolkien often spent pages describing a single landscape. Choose one of your favorite pieces of classic literature, find a long passage of description, and rewrite it. Try to cut the descriptive word count in half.
When you read a book, use a highlighter to mark sentences and paragraphs that contain description. Don’t highlight every adjective and adverb. Look for longer passages that are dedicated to description.
Write a description for a child. Choose something reasonably difficult, like the solar system. How do you describe it in such a way that a child understands how he or she fits into it?
Most writers dream of someday writing a book. Describe your book cover.
Write a one-page description of yourself.

If you have any descriptive writing practices to add to this list, feel free to share them in the comments.

Descriptive Writing

Does descriptive writing come easily to you, or do you struggle with it? Do you put much thought into how you write description? What types of descriptive writing have you tackled — descriptive essays, blocks of description within larger texts, or descriptions woven throughout a narrative? Share your tips for descriptive writing by leaving a comment, and keep writing!

Further Reading: Abolish the Adverbs , Making the Right Word Choices for Better Writing , and Writing Description in Fiction .

Ready Set Write a Guide to Creative Writing

I find descriptions easier when first beginning a scene. Other ones I struggle with. Yes, intertwining them with dialogue does help a lot.

I have the opposite experience. I tend to dive right into action and dialogue when I first start a scene.

I came across this article at just the right time. I am just starting to write a short story. This will change the way I describe characters in my story.

Thank you for this. R.G. Ramsey

You’re welcome!

Great tips and how to practise and improve our descriptive writing skills. Thank you for sharing.

You’re welcome, Bella.

Hello Melissa

I have read many of your articles about different aspects of writing and have enjoyed all of them. What you said here, I agree with, with the exception of #7. That is one point that I dispute and don’t understand the reason why anyone would do this, though I’ve seen books that had things like that done to them.

To me, a book is something to be treasured, loved and taken care of. It deserves my respect because I’m sure the author poured their heart and soul into its creation. Marking it up that way is nothing short of defacing it. A book or story is a form of art, so should a person mark over a picture by Rembrandt or any other famous painter? You’re a very talented author, so why would you want someone to mark through the words you had spent considerable time and effort agonizing over, while searching for the best words to convey your thoughts?

If I want to remember some section or point the author is making, then I’ll take a pen and paper and record the page number and perhaps the first few words of that particular section. I’ve found that writing a note this way helps me remember it better. This is then placed inside the cover for future reference. If someone did what you’ve suggested to a book of mine, I’d be madder than a ‘wet hen’, and that person would certainly be told what I thought of them.

In any of the previous articles you’ve written, you’ve brought up some excellent points which I’ve tried to incorporate in my writing. Keep up the good work as I know your efforts have helped me, and I’m sure other authors as well.

Hi Stanley. Thanks so much for sharing your point of view. I appreciate and value it.

Marking up a book is a common practice, especially in academia. Putting notes in margins, underlining, highlighting, and tagging pages with bookmarks is standard. Personally, I mark up nonfiction paperbacks, but I never mark up fiction paperbacks or any hardcovers (not since college).

I completely respect your right to keep your books in pristine condition. And years ago, when I started college, I felt exactly the same way. I was horrified that people (instructors and professors!) would fill their books with ugly yellow highlighting and other markips. But I quickly realized that this was shortsighted.

Consider an old paperback that is worn and dog-eared. With one look, you know this book has been read many times and it’s probably loved. It’s like the Velveteen Rabbit of books. I see markups as the same — that someone was engaging with the book and trying to understand it on a deeper level, which is not disrespectful. It’s something to be celebrated.

Sometimes we place too much value on the book as a physical object rather than what’s inside. I appreciate a beautiful book as much as anyone but what really matters to me is the information or experience that it contains. I often read on a Kindle. Sometimes I listen to audio books. There is no physical book. The experience is not lessened.

I understand where you’re coming from. I used to feel the same way, but my mind was changed. I’m not trying to change yours, but I hope you’ll understand.

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How to write a book description: 8 steps with examples.

March 19, 2024
10 min read

Consider this: What draws you to a new book in a store? Beyond being a fan of the author, a striking title and captivating cover often catch your eye first. However, to judge whether the book is worth your time and investment, you instinctively turn to the back cover or browse the online description of a book .

Here lies the author’s or book writing services provider’s created “blurb,” providing just enough insight to spark a flurry of questions in your mind. A well-written description is key to luring readers. For authors, especially those self-publishing, creating an irresistible book blurb ensures that your hard work translates into book sales.

This article is your guide to constructing book descriptions that sell, deeply engage, and encourage readers to pick the book up.

The first sentence when you write a book description is like the opening act of a magic show. It’s your one chance to pull a rabbit out of the hat and make the audience gasp in awe. Here are some tips to craft a hook that’s impossible to ignore:

Ask a question: Starting with a question makes the reader’s brain tick. It’s like pressing a mysterious button – they just have to know what happens when they do.

Example: What would you do if you discovered your whole life was a lie written by someone you trusted?

Showcase a unique situation or setting: If your book has a setting or situation that’s out of the ordinary, flaunt it in the first sentence. It’s like showing a glimpse of a secret world.

Example: Clara is the only one stuck on the ground in a city where everyone can fly.

Remember, your hook should echo the soul of your book. Make it so intriguing that the reader can’t help but dive into your world headfirst.

After reeling in your reader with a stellar hook, it’s time to shine a spotlight on your protagonist and the stage of their story. This is where the book editors give a taste of who the reader will be rooting for and where the drama unfolds.

Highlight your character’s uniqueness: What makes your protagonist stand out? Even if they’re an ‘everyman’ or ‘everywoman,’ there’s something special about them. Find that spark and present it.

Example: Jake, a baker with the power to imprint emotions into his pastries, finds his quiet life upside down when…

Paint the setting with broad strokes: You don’t need to dive into deep detail but give a sense of where and when your story occurs. Is it in a bustling modern city, a distant planet, or a magic-filled ancient kingdom?

Example: In the neon-lit streets of Neo-Tokyo, where robots and humans are indistinguishable, lies a secret only she can uncover.

Introducing your protagonist when you write a book description helps the reader feel grounded in your story. The warm-up act before the main event sets the stage for everything that follows.

After you’ve set the stage with your hook and introduced your characters and their world, it’s time to reveal what shakes up their existence. Every writer knows conflict is important to incorporate to write a good story. The conflict or problem is the big storm heading their way, and your book is how they weather it.

When crafting this part of your description of a book :

Make it personal: The problem should hit your main character where it’s most painful. This conflict is their dragon to slay, their mountain to climb.

Example: When Annie finds the mysterious locket at the town fair, she never expected it to whisper her secrets back to her.

Dive into the emotions: Let the reader feel the weight of the problem. Is it fear? Anger? Desperation? Lace your words with the emotion that drives the narrative.

Example: With every whispered secret, Annie is drawn deeper into a labyrinth of memories she never knew she had—each one more frightening than the last.

Remember, the reader is here for the roller coaster ride of emotions, so make sure they can almost hear the tracks clanking and feel the anticipatory climb before the drop.

Now that you’ve introduced the conflict when you write a book description , it’s vital to show readers what’s at risk. What will happen if the protagonist fails to overcome their problem? The stakes are the fire beneath the plot’s boiling pot.

To turn up the heat:

Show what’s in jeopardy: The character’s life, love, sanity, or the world itself, make clear what could be lost. It’s like the moment in a movie when the hero hangs by a thread over a chasm—everyone’s breath is held.

Example: If Annie can’t silence the locket, her past may unravel her future and the fabric of reality itself.

Keep it relatable: Even if your story is set in a fantastical universe, the stakes must resonate on a human level. We all know what it’s like to fear losing something precious.

Example: As the locket’s grip tightens, Annie must fight for the truth and the essence of love and trust within her family before it’s shattered forever.

Raising the stakes heightens the tension and ensures your reader is invested enough to want to leap into the pages to join the protagonist in their battle against the odds.

With the stage set, characters introduced, and stakes established, it’s time to pull back the curtain just a bit more and offer a sneak peek at the journey ahead. You want to build a bridge of intrigue that the reader can’t help but cross.

Here’s how to tease the plot without revealing too much:

Outline the journey: Give a hint of the protagonist’s path. It’s like showing someone the start of a treasure map but keeping the X that marks the spot a mystery.

Example: To unlock the locket’s riddles, Annie is thrust into a scavenger hunt through her history, which will lead her to places she’s only seen in her dreams.

Mention the challenges: What hurdles must your character leap to succeed? It’s like hinting at the massive walls and treacherous rivers that lie ahead on an epic quest.

Example: From the hidden corners of her grandmother’s attic to the forgotten caves beneath the town, Annie will face puzzles that test her smarts and scares that test her courage.

Keep in mind that this part of your description of a book is about movement and momentum. Plant enough curiosity seeds so the reader can’t wait for them to sprout.

Every book has a heart that beats to the rhythm of its atmosphere. The feeling your story evokes can be just as important as the plot. When you write a book description , it should give a flavor of this to set the mood.

Here’s how to infuse atmosphere into your description:

Choose your words wisely: Your word choice sets the tone. Are your words dark and brooding, light and airy, or tense and quick? They’re not just explaining the story but painting the emotional landscape.

Example: In the shadows of the attic and the echoes of the caves, Annie’s journey is bated with breaths of suspense and washed with whistles of whimsy.

Reflect on the genre: Your atmosphere should nod to the genre. If it’s a mystery, weave in a sense of enigma. If it’s an adventure, the scent of distant shores should linger in your sentences.

Example: Every clue Annie unravels is a thread pulling her deeper into a tapestry of mystique and wonder, coloring her world with shades of danger and discovery.

Creating a vivid atmosphere not only shapes the reader’s expectations but also draws them deeper into the world of your story, ensuring they’re not just reading your words but living them.

If you’ve got glowing comments or reviews about your book, this step is your time to let it shine. Praise can be the golden word of approval that nudges a reader from consideration to purchase.

Here’s how to include praise effectively:

Be selective: Choose the most impactful and relevant praise you’ve received. It’s like picking the ripest, juiciest fruit from the tree — it will be the most satisfying for the reader.

Example: Hailed as “the summer’s must-read that will enchant and terrify in equal measure” by bestselling author Mary Thompson.

Keep it humble: While it’s important to showcase praise, make sure it doesn’t come off as bragging. Think of it as a friend recommending a great movie rather than a salesperson pushing a product.

Example: Readers call it “a journey marked by heart, heat, and the haunting whispers of an unforgettable heroine” – ShareYourStory Reviews.

Including praise helps build credibility and trust. It tells potential readers that this book has been on an adventure— through the hands and hearts of others who have loved it.

Like the final scene in a fireworks show, your closing sentence should leave readers with that ‘wow’ sensation that lingers. The encore has them clamoring for the full performance, which, in this case, is your book.

Here’s how to create a memorable closing:

Echo the hook: Bringing your description of a book full circle by echoing elements from your hook can be very satisfying for readers. It’s like ending a song with a gently familiar chorus that has everyone humming along.

Example: Will you unlock the secrets of Annie’s past? Step inside her tattered old book of life and turn the page.

Use powerful imagery or a call to action: Encourage the reader’s imagination to take flight or invite them to jump into the adventure. It’s like holding your hand and whispering, “Come with me.”

Example: Take the key to the past and discover what magic and monsters lie hidden in the pages waiting for you.

A robust closing ties everything up with an emotional bow and convinces the reader to take the next step — reading the book.

Remember, when you write a book description , each point entices and intrigues you. By building upon each step carefully, you’re not just presenting a product; you’re offering an escape, an experience, and an emotional journey.

Writing a book description isn’t easy, but don’t worry, these steps will guide you through, much like having ghostwriters by your side to demystify the process. Remember, like a magician’s reveal, the best descriptions lay out the show but keep the secrets. Now go on, shape your reader’s curiosity, and make them need to read your book like they need to hear the end of a mysterious tale.

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Secrets of Writing a Book Description that Sells (With Examples & Templates)

on Aug 21, 2023
in Writing Tips
Last update: October 9th, 2023
at 12:31 pm

With the countless number of books that get published every year, all competing for attention, it’s usually the book description that possesses the power to captivate potential readers and compel them to make the purchase. And while the book cover and title may initially raise their interest, it is that captivating description that seals the deal.

By creating a well-crafted book description, you’ll be able to intrigue your readers’ curiosity and evoke their emotions. But in order to achieve that, you need to understand what exactly goes into writing a creative yet professional description for your book, and maybe check some bestselling books for inspiration. And that’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article.

What Is a Book Description?

A book description is a short and exciting summary of your book that highlights its best parts to grab readers’ attention and make them want to buy it. A well-written book description gives the readers a sneak peek into the story and gets them interested in reading the rest of the book. Along with your book title, cover, and price , the description can be a great marketing tool for converting potential readers into buyers.

The Importance of Book Description

There are many reasons why you should care about perfecting your book description. Not only does it have the power to convert potential readers into buyers, but it can also affect the following:

Conversion: Let’s say you’re going to an interview with a great resume and you’re well-dressed, but the first words that come out of your mouth aren’t what the interviewer is looking for, they probably won’t be interested in hiring you. The same would happen if you have a great title and book cover, but your description is poorly written; chances are no one is going to be tempted to purchase and read your book.
Visibility: Your book description should be SEO optimized to help readers find what they’re looking for (we’ll discuss this in more detail later in the article). This can be done by including certain keywords that you know your potential readers are searching for. Let’s say, for example, that you’re writing a cookbook for beginners called “The ABCs of Grilling”; while the title might be catchy, your target audience might not be searching for “ABCs of Grilling” and instead searching for “grilling guide” in their search engines. That’s why it’s always advisable to use these kinds of related keywords in your book description to reach your target audience.
Uniqueness: What could possibly differentiate your book from every other book in the same genre? Your book description should. Because even if your title is catchy enough, the description usually gives the reader an idea of what your book is about and how different it is from similar ones in the same genre.

Book Description vs Book Blurb

Since they can be pretty similar, many people get confused between a book blurb and a book description, often using the two terms interchangeably. And while both should be compelling and catchy, there are a couple of differences between them, such as:

Placement: While a book description appears on the book purchasing online page on the digital publishing platform it’s published on, the blurb is written on the book’s back cover.
Word Count: Usually a book blurb is between 150 and 200 words. The book description can be an expanded version of the blurb that is a little more than 150 words.
Target: The book description is crafted with online shoppers in mind, while the blurb usually targets shoppers in physical bookstores and libraries.

How to Write a Book Description

Now that you know the importance of writing a captivating book description, let’s look at how you can actually create one. Below, we have divided the process into a few simple steps so you can master one after the other. But before going into the details of each step, please note that you don’t have to apply all of them; just include whatever feels right for your own book.

1. Headline

While not every book description has to start with a headline (or a small phrase about the book), it is a sure way to make a quick, powerful impression. Some platforms, such as Amazon, allow you to start your book description with a headline to hook your potential readers.

Usually, the headline is about 25 words or less, written in bold and followed by a paragraph break so it can stand out from the rest of the book description. And it could be anything that can grab your readers’ attention, such as:

Awards you have won;
Your book’s genre;
Key topics your book discusses; or
Editorial reviews.

While writing this headline, try to show instead of just telling. For example, if your book is a yoga guide for beginners, don’t just write “Learn how to do yoga like a pro;” instead, you can go with something like, “An interactive ebook where you can actually see your yoga instructor and follow their lead every step of the way.”

2. Explanation (without Spoilers)

Whether it’s a fiction or a non-fiction book, you don’t want to give away too much in your book description. And now that you’ve hooked the readers with the headline, it’s time to give them some more details. Think about the details that would get your readers most excited and interested in your book.

As for fiction books , the conflict is what gets the readers invested in the story. Many stories have one main conflict that drives the plot. Even if there’s more than one conflict, one of them tends to take over the flow of events. Try to briefly describe this conflict in an emotionally provoking way that gets your potential readers’ invested in the story.

In non-fiction books , on the other hand, you want to focus on the problems your book solves for your readers. Try answering the following questions: what are the pain points that you’re addressing how does your book help in overcoming them?

3. Relevant Keywords

It’s very important to include the keywords in your description that your potential readers are using to search for books like yours; otherwise, they might not be able to find your book at all. With that in mind, remember that it’s also important not to stuff your book description with many keywords; only keep the relevant ones.

To find the perfect keywords for your book description, you can use tools such as Ahrefs or Keyword Tool , where you can select the language and country you want to target.

For fiction and non-fiction books alike, your keywords could be:

The genre or subgenre of your book (romance, sci-fi, self-help, economics, etc.);
Major themes (self-discovery, friendship, grief) or topics (time management, diet, etc.);
Awards (NYTimes Bestseller); or
Previous books.

4. Formatting

Using the right format in your book description can be very powerful for readers who are in a hurry and don’t want to go through every single word, especially if it’s just one bulky paragraph. So try implementing these formatting elements to make the text scannable and make it easier for the reader to understand what the description is about:

Paragraph breaks
Bullet points

It’s worth mentioning, however, that overusing any of these elements can make the description look unprofessional. So use them wisely to help the readers understand what your book is about.

5. Author Credentials

While the book description should focus mainly on the book and not on you, it wouldn’t hurt to mention what makes you qualified for writing this book. This could be anything related to your book, like any awards you’ve won or degrees you have.

Adding your credentials can help paint you as a subject matter expert in the topic of your book. This, in turn, can increase the readers’ trust and confidence in what you wrote, especially for non-fiction books.

6. Testimonials or Endorsements

You can also add any testimonials or endorsements you received from other readers or well-known figures. Testimonials are usually a brief summary of your book by someone who has enjoyed reading it or found it helpful. An endorsement, on the other hand, is usually written by someone who is a subject matter expert, saying that you’re indeed qualified to write this book.

7. Comparative Titles

It’s a good idea, especially if you’re a new author, to add some comparative titles in your book description. This can help indicate the tone and genre of your book, and make your potential readers find it more relatable.

If your book is a crime mystery, for example, you can add something like, “In the tradition of Murder on the Orient Express , this book takes you on a journey where all the suspects are related, and the truth is buried.”

8. End with a Cliffhanger

Just like how you started your description with a hook, you want to end with a cliffhanger that would leave your readers wanting more. This is especially true for fiction books and novels.

The same thing can be applied to non-fiction in the form of a call to action; after hooking the readers with the headline and touching upon their pain points, you can urge them to buy your book to know how to overcome such problems.

how to write a book description step-by-step

Book Description Examples from Best-Selling Books

Looking at book descriptions written for best-selling books can give you an idea of what grabs readers’ attention and push them to purchase these books. You can do that by browsing websites such as Goodreads or Amazon and searching for books in your genre.

To make things easier for you, we’ll present a couple of examples for book descriptions of both fiction and non-fiction books, and show you how famous authors used each part of the description in a smart and captivating way.

1. Non-Fiction Book Description Example

Written by Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point was an instant bestseller for many reasons. Looking at its book description, you can see how it starts with a hook, moves to a spoiler-free explanation, and concludes with an endorsement from another famous writer. It also makes good use of formatting options, such as making the title bold and adding quotation marks.

Another great example is the book description of Atomic Habits , one of the all-time best-selling books. Its description starts with an attention-grabbing, bold title, uses paragraph breaks, and contains bullet points that highlight the main takeaways.

2. Fiction Book Description Example

Now let’s look at a description of fiction books, which might be slightly different than non-fiction ones in that it doesn’t have takeaways or lessons. Still, the descriptions of bestselling fiction books tend to paint a picture of the story and highlight the main themes.

Here’s the description of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthoney Doerr, which also starts with a headline, highlights the author’s credentials, then explains the storyline in an engaging way.

all the light we can't see book description

Book Description Template

To make the process of writing a book description easier, we have added below a couple of templates that you can use for your book, instead of creating one from scratch. Whether you need it as a fiction or a non-fiction book, we’ve got you covered.

1. Non-Fiction Book Description Template

Start with a catchy title, a few words that captivate your reader and urge them to continue reading the book description. Describe the main message of your book in a few, scannable sentences using power words. Touch upon the pain points your readers face and briefly explain how your book helps resolve them. Make sure to use bold, italic, and underlining to highlight the important parts of your description. Start listing the main topics or takeaways from your book. Write something like, “In this comprehensive guide you will learn”: – Takeaway #1 and how it’ll benefit them – Takeaway #2 and use some trigger words – How reading this book will help them in the long run You can close by adding a testimonial, endorsement, or a strong call to action.

2. Fiction Book Description Template

Start with a title that hooks the readers and makes them want to continue reading the description. Then you can start describing the setting of your story, including the time, place, and genre. Move on to the main character of your story and their role in the plot. Describe their journey briefly and make the reader empathize with them. Use power words to show the reader why this story matters. highlight the main themes of your story and use formatting elements such as bold, italic, and underlining . Add some comparative titles that are familiar to your target audience. This can be books, shows, or movies. You can also add here a sentence or two about your credentials and any awards you’ve won. End with a cliffhanger, leaving the reader wanting to know more about the journey of the main characters of your story.

Book Description Generator

If you feel that all the previous steps are too much, then you can definitely use a book description generator to write one for you. And while we recommend that you rely more on the human touch, you can always edit and tweak the results that come from these generators to be more to your liking.

Here are some book description generators that can help you get the job done:

Nichesss : This website offers over 150 advanced AI tools to help writers with different aspects of the writing process. Their free book description generator can create different ones in a matter of seconds. All you have to do is type a short description of what your book is about and the title of your book, then choose whichever option you feel is the most captivating.
Paraphrasing Tool : While this is mainly a paraphrasing tool, you’ll find many other useful AI writing tools, including a free book description generator. It allows you to enter your book title and one or two sentences explaining what your book is about. It then proceeds to generate a captivating description that you can use on your book page.
Kindleprenuer : If you have been looking for how to write a book description for Amazon, then this tool is perfect for you. Instead of writing the description for you, this tool helps you get a formatted HTML that you can copy and paste to your book description page on Amazon, among other platforms.
Book Raid : Unlike the other tools, this one doesn’t just write your book description for you. While it can do that, giving you a beautifully tailored description for your book page, it also has a couple of other options that can help you market your book to the right audience. The first is categorizing your book, suggesting the genre and sub-genre you can enlist your book under; and the second is highlighting the main themes in your book so you can write a better book description.

How to Add Your Book Description in Kotobee

Now that you know how to write your book description, let’s see how you’ll add it to your ebook in Kotobee Author . Here’s all you have to do:

Open the Book Manager from the Edit screen.

2. Then paste your book description in the field labeled Description . Click OK and you’re done.

Wrapping Up

A compelling book description can be a powerful marketing tool that hugely affects your book sales. By applying the tips we shared in this article, you’ll be able to get the readers’ attention with a concise yet emotionally engaging description that has the potential to convert them into buyers.

So roll up your sleeves and start crafting your description, and maybe even try to create multiple drafts until you find the perfect fit. And if you ever need assistance, keep in mind that numerous description generators are available to lend a helping hand in getting the job done.

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Top 10 books about creative writing

From linguistics to essays by Zadie Smith and Toni Morrison, poet Anthony Anaxagorou recommends some ‘lateral’ ways in to a demanding craft

T he poet Rita Dove was once asked what makes poetry successful. She went on to illuminate three key areas: First, the heart of the writer; the things they wish to say – their politics and overarching sensibilities. Second, their tools: how they work language to organise and position words. And the third, the love a person must have for books: “To read, read, read.”

When I started mapping out How to Write It , I wanted to focus on the aspects of writing development that took in both theoretical and interpersonal aspects. No writer lives in a vacuum, their job is an endless task of paying attention.

How do I get myself an agent? What’s the best way to approach a publisher? Should I self-publish? There is never one way to assuage the concerns of those looking to make a career out of writing. Many labour tirelessly for decades on manuscripts that never make it to print. The UK on average publishes around 185,000 new titles per year, ranking us the third largest publishing market in the world, yet the number of aspiring writers is substantially greater.

Writers writing about writing can become a supercilious endeavour; I’m more interested in the process of making work and the writer’s perspectives that substantiate the framework.

There’s no single authority, anything is possible. All that’s required are some words and an idea – which makes the art of writing enticing but also difficult and daunting. The books listed below, diverse in their central arguments and genres, guide us towards more interesting and lateral ways to think about what we want to say, and ultimately, how we choose to say it.

1. The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner An intellectual meditation on the cultural function of poetry. Less idealistic than other poetry criticism, Lerner puts forward a richly layered case for the reasons writers and readers alike turn to poetry, probing into why it’s often misconceived as elitist or tedious, and asks that we reconsider the value we place on the art form today.

2. Find Your Voice by Angie Thomas One of the hardest things about creative writing is developing a voice and not compromising your vision for the sake of public appeal. Thomas offers sharp advice to those wrestling with novels or Young Adult fiction. She writes with appealing honesty, taking in everything from writer’s block to deciding what a final draft should look like. The book also comes interspersed with prompts and writing exercises alongside other tips and suggestions to help airlift writers out of the mud.

3. Linguistics: Why It Matters by Geoffrey K Pullum If language is in a constant state of flux, and rules governing sentence construction, meaning and logic are always at a point of contention, what then can conventional modes of language and linguistics tell us about ourselves, our cultures and our relationship to the material world? Pullum addresses a number of philosophical questions through the scientific study of human languages – their grammars, clauses and limitations. An approachable, fascinating resource for those interested in the mechanics of words.

4. Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle The collected lectures of poet and professor Mary Ruefle present us with an erudite inquiry into some of the major aspects of a writer’s mind and craft. Ruefle possesses an uncanny ability to excavate broad and complex subjects with such unforced and original lucidity that you come away feeling as if you’ve acquired an entirely new perspective from only a few pages. Themes range from sentimentality in poetry, to fear, beginnings and – a topic she returns to throughout the book – wonder. “A poem is a finished work of the mind, it is not the work of a finished mind.”

5. Feel Free by Zadie Smith These astute and topical essays dating from 2010 to 2017 demonstrate Smith’s forensic ability to navigate and unpack everything from Brexit to Justin Bieber. Dissecting high philosophical works then bringing the focus back on to her own practice as a fiction writer, her essay The I Who Is Not Me sees Smith extrapolate on how autobiography shapes novel writing, and elucidates her approach to thinking around British society’s tenuous and often binary perspectives on race, class and ethnicity.

6. Threads by Sandeep Parmar, Nisha Ramayya and Bhanu Kapil Who occupies the “I” in poetry? When poets write, are they personally embodying their speakers or are they intended to be emblematic of something larger and more complex? Is the “I” assumed to be immutable or is it more porous? These are the questions posited in Threads, which illuminates the function of the lyric “I” in relation to whiteness, maleness and Britishness. Its short but acute essays interrogate whiteness’s hegemony in literature and language, revealing how writers from outside the dominant paradigm are often made to reckon with the positions and perspectives they write from.

7. Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison An urgent set of essays and lectures from the late Nobel prize winner that collates her most discerning musings around citizenship, race and art, as well as offering invaluable insight into the craft of writing. She reflects on revisions made to her most famous novel, Beloved, while also reflecting on the ways vernaculars can shape new stories. One of my favourite aphorisms written by Morrison sits on my desk and declares: “As writers, what we do is remember. And to remember this world is to create it.”

8. On Poetry by Jonathan Davidson Poetry can be thought of as something arduous or an exercise in analysis, existing either within small artistic enclaves or secondary school classrooms. One of the many strengths of Davidson’s writing is how he makes poetry feel intimate and personal, neither dry or remote. His approach to thinking around ways that certain poems affect us is well measured without being exclusive. A timely and resourceful book for writers interested in how poems go on to live with us throughout our lives.

9. Essays by Lydia Davis From flash fiction to stories, Davis is recognised as one of the preeminent writers of short-form fiction. In these essays, spanning several decades, she tracks much of her writing process and her relationship to experimentalism, form and the ways language can work when pushed to its outer limits. How we read into lines is something Davis returns to, as is the idea of risk and brevity within micro-fiction.

10. Essayism by Brian Dillon Dillon summarises the essay as an “experiment in attention”. This dynamic and robust consideration of the form sheds light on how and why certain essays have changed the cultural and political landscape, from the end of the Middle Ages to the present time. A sharp and curious disquisition on one of the more popular yet challenging writing enterprises.

How to Write It by Anthony Anaxagorou is published by Merky Books. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com .

Creative writing
Toni Morrison
Zadie Smith
Lydia Davis

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Writing Powerful Descriptions

Writing is an account of how people think. As a medium it's intrinsically empathic; it communicates patently human sensibilities. In order for a story to work, it needs to feel like real life, even when it’s actually something quite different. The more detailed and rich your descriptions, the better your writing will approximate the human experience, thereby establishing a connection with fellow minds.

The best descriptions are the ones that are completely original, easily understood and often reminisced. They're digestible yet impressionable, they say something profound but they’re palatable enough to be comprehended by anyone. It’s a difficult technique to master, an art form in itself, really.

Consider this a primer for writing good descriptions (here’s your first lesson: “good” isn’t a suitable or sufficient way to describe anything). To make things interesting — and very embarrassing for me — I’ve dug up several of my own stories from years past to illustrate some truly awful blunders in description, each of which poisoned workshops at varying times during the earlier half of the last decade. Be warned: some major toadstools lie ahead.

Appeal to the senses

Words with strong sensory associations always increase your chances of yielding an empathic response. Why? When you appeal to our sensory faculties, you’re inviting us to imagine how something feels . Literally.

In order to maximize that empathic response, try to appeal to all the senses as often as you can. Don’t just tell us what something looks like, tell us how it sounds, how it tastes. Recent studies show words containing sensory descriptions are so powerful they even stimulate areas of the brain that aren't used to process language. When we read a detailed account of how something smells, for example, our sensory cortex gets a signal. In other words, the brain often treats real experiences and reading about them as the same thing. If you really want to place your reader in the story, your writing should take advantage of our collective faulty wiring whenever you can.

The same applies to our relationships with the laws of physics. Words describing motion can stimulate the motor cortex, which is responsible for coordinating body movements. If you really want to simulate motion, try doing this while varying the rhythms in your sentences. Want to increase action? Put your subject directly before the verb. To slow down the motion (in other words, to add emphasis), shorten the sentence. If you want to bring things to a stop, try replacing a conjunction with a comma: The fields are barren now, deserted. Here’s another trick: if you want to temporarily “stop” time, try removing the verbs altogether.

Be specific

Avoid summary in your descriptions. Offer concrete information, engage us with moment-to-moment details, tell us about each detail, and how they affect the senses.

One of the most practical — and indeed, easiest — ways of laying out a descriptive foundation is to envision each scene before you write it. Literally close your eyes, see the scene and then write it down. For the time being, just let the image do its work; look closely at the objects in the scene, and describe them in a manner that’s as painfully specific as possible. Now — to establish storytelling authority — make sure the description is told from the proper subjective viewpoint: tell us how the character or narrator would see things from the POV you've established.

Here’s an especially bad slice of description from a story I wrote eight years ago:

Example (bad): It is hot.

“It is hot” would be fine if I were filling out a police report, or even writing a piece of journalism. But this was intended to be a work of fiction. Clearly, I hadn’t yet realized that by generalizing and not appealing to the readers' senses I missed an ideal opportunity to connect with empathizing human minds.

Example (better): The heat is oppressive, sweltering and exhausting, it sticks to the skin and makes ovens out of parking lots.

Some things to always consider when you’re writing a scene: do your word choices paint images, do they place us in the moment? Do they make us participants in the story instead of mere observers? Not only is this new sentence more specific, it brings in a few common experiences associated with heat (sticky skin, broiling parking lots), thereby placing readers into the action and increasing the chances of an empathic response.

Limit modifiers

It’s bad timing given my last example, but try to cut down on your adjectives and adverbs. Modifiers don’t specify words as much as you might think. More often than not, they actually abstract a thought, so sentences that rely on modifiers for descriptive strength are building on faulty foundations. You’ll be more successful if you instead find the verb that perfectly portrays the image you’re envisioning. When you edit your work, spend considerable time scrutinizing your sentences to make sure the action maximizes full descriptive potential.

Example (bad): They arrived at the house just behind the streaming line of fire trucks, their street alive in the opulent glow of lights and sirens, their house ablaze in a perennial bloom of orange and yellow.

Unfortunately, this story was published before I possessed the wherewithal to edit such obtuse overwriting. Looking at it five years later, the sentence would have been fine if I simply cut down on the modifiers and let the action breathe.

Example (better): They arrived at the house just behind the fire trucks, the street alive in a glow of lights and sirens, their house ablaze.

Notice how this version places an emphasis on the verbs. Moreover, there’s another advantage gained here. In the first version, the sentence ends with a description of the colors of the blaze, hardly essential information. Now emphasis is placed on the most important information in the sentence (and in this case, the entire story): the burning house. If you want to draw extra emphasis to anything, put it at the end of the sentence. Placing it at the beginning is a close second. Never bury important information in the middle.

Use figurative language

Ever wonder why metaphor and analogy are such powerful — not to mention, popular — tools? Figurative language is an unmatched ally in descriptive pursuits. It gives the writer a chance to deconstruct a specific, subjective event and recast it into something familiar.

The human mind is engineered to see patterns. Anytime you disguise a comparison as a statement (which is what happens with a metaphor) you’re bringing the subject into a new relationship. You’ve established one pattern as being analogous to another pre-existing pattern, and we begin to see a small part of the world in a different way. It takes some creative know-how to make figurative language fly however, and metaphors that are confused, off-base or cliché can ruin an otherwise stellar piece of writing. The analogous relationships you establish have to be earned.

Example (bad): The overcast September sky stared back under a blanket of ashen gray.

First of all, I could happily live the remainder of my days without ever hearing clouds being referred to as a “blanket” again (ditto for “cotton”). Description this familiar tells me I wasn’t particularly inspired when I wrote it, back in 2005. Then there’s the semantic clumsiness of it all. “Blanket of ashen gray?" Why not just write “ashen gray blanket,” or better yet, “gray blanket?” Finally, do skies really “stare back?" The figurative appeals here (clichéd metaphor, awkward personification) seem careless, even lazy. If I were to rewrite the phrase today I might say something like this:

Example (better): There was an orange burn where the sun had been, and the mutilated animal shapes of cloud lay scattered in the tear of dusk.

It’s overkill, but you get the idea. Say something that both reconstructs the subject and enables the reader to see the world in a new, yet recognizable, light.

Also, avoid well-worn words and everyday figures of speech. Describing a farmhouse as “quaint," or using phrases like “before he knew it,” are so familiar the reader treats them as boilerplate and usually skips over them entirely. Always try to describe something in a way that’s never been described before.

Get to the point

If there’s a single take-away I want readers to get from a column that focuses on description, it’s this: avoid obfuscating and pointless over-writing. It’s not the job of the writer to besiege the reader, either with a litany of unimportant details or some long-winded, faux intellectual attempt at armchair discourse. Unfortunately, it seems nearly every writer (myself included) goes through this cringe-inducing phase where we pillage the dictionary or treat our keyboards like calculators. Works resulting from this mindset offer very little descriptive assistance for the reader, and a lot of later embarrassment for writers guilty of these storytelling snafus. When it comes to description, focus on the most telling details rather than caving in to your writerly proclivities to lean on the pen. You’ll thank me later.

Example (bad): He wondered if there was some deeper meaning to it, if the heat spoke of the true workings of this city, the only place he’d known really, and if he tried hard enough he could find an answer that satisfied him, an explanation beyond what those fortunate to have everything and those cursed with nothing have always been forced to accept, if nature’s brutality revealed a final authority, and man’s need to find reason with it was little more than a grotesque delusion that he could make sense out of nothing.

What a mess! Sentences like this reveal a practice that’s very common today, where writers spin these syntactical Triple Lindies in the hopes they can somehow scare people into liking their work. There’s a sort of bullying insecurity afoot here, because the delivery seems to operate off the idea that if readers don’t like the work, clearly it means they “didn’t understand it.” In actuality, this hat trick works on very few people, and incidentally, what’s on the page here says very, very little. This section’s descriptive duties would’ve been much more effective if I had ditched the dime-store existentialism and described instead what the character was thinking, in terms more fitting of his POV. The fundamental disregard to work within the descriptive framework of the character I established — to choose authorial square jawed smugness instead of revealing things the way the character would have seen them, in other words — reveals a rudimentary mishandling of narrative. In the end, it’s the writer who suffers the most from this kind of cloying pedantry, because he/she has deliberately girded the sentences’ potential strengths with mindless clutter.

Example (better): He wondered if the heat revealed nature’s final authority, and that man’s need to find reason with it was little more than a grotesque delusion that he could make sense out of nothing.

The sentence’s newfound pith reestablishes some aphoristic value that was completely submerged in the verbiage. It’s still not a very good sentence, mind you, but it’s far less annoying than what was on the page before. Maybe someday I’ll go back and further try to clean up this mess-terpiece, but until then I’m more than happy to let my purple prose serve as a lesson in moderation and sensibility. Here’s hoping you can also learn from your mistakes — as well as mine.

Find out about Jon Gingerich's 'Fundamentals of Short Fiction' class , which begins todfay! (few seats still available!)

About the author

Jon Gingerich is editor of O'Dwyer's magazine in New York. His fiction has been published in literary journals such as The Oyez Review, Pleiades, Helix Magazine , as well as The New York Press , London’s Litro magazine, and many others. He currently writes about politics and media trends at www.odwyerpr.com . Jon holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Some of his published fiction can be found at www.jongingerich.com .

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What is Creative Writing? A Key Piece of the Writer’s Toolbox

Not all writing is the same and there’s a type of writing that has the ability to transport, teach, and inspire others like no other.

Creative writing stands out due to its unique approach and focus on imagination. Here’s how to get started and grow as you explore the broad and beautiful world of creative writing!

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing that extends beyond the bounds of regular professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature. It is characterized by its emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or poetic techniques to express ideas in an original and imaginative way.

Creative writing can take on various forms such as:

short stories
screenplays

It’s a way for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a creative, often symbolic, way . It’s about using the power of words to transport readers into a world created by the writer.

5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing

Creative writing is marked by several defining characteristics, each working to create a distinct form of expression:

1. Imagination and Creativity: Creative writing is all about harnessing your creativity and imagination to create an engaging and compelling piece of work. It allows writers to explore different scenarios, characters, and worlds that may not exist in reality.

2. Emotional Engagement: Creative writing often evokes strong emotions in the reader. It aims to make the reader feel something — whether it’s happiness, sorrow, excitement, or fear.

3. Originality: Creative writing values originality. It’s about presenting familiar things in new ways or exploring ideas that are less conventional.

4. Use of Literary Devices: Creative writing frequently employs literary devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and others to enrich the text and convey meanings in a more subtle, layered manner.

5. Focus on Aesthetics: The beauty of language and the way words flow together is important in creative writing. The aim is to create a piece that’s not just interesting to read, but also beautiful to hear when read aloud.

Remember, creative writing is not just about producing a work of art. It’s also a means of self-expression and a way to share your perspective with the world. Whether you’re considering it as a hobby or contemplating a career in it, understanding the nature and characteristics of creative writing can help you hone your skills and create more engaging pieces .

For more insights into creative writing, check out our articles on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree and is a degree in creative writing worth it .

Styles of Creative Writing

To fully understand creative writing , you must be aware of the various styles involved. Creative writing explores a multitude of genres, each with its own unique characteristics and techniques.

Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses expressive language to evoke emotions and ideas. Poets often employ rhythm, rhyme, and other poetic devices to create pieces that are deeply personal and impactful. Poems can vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter, making this a versatile and dynamic form of creative writing.

Short Stories

Short stories are another common style of creative writing. These are brief narratives that typically revolve around a single event or idea. Despite their length, short stories can provide a powerful punch, using precise language and tight narrative structures to convey a complete story in a limited space.

Novels represent a longer form of narrative creative writing. They usually involve complex plots, multiple characters, and various themes. Writing a novel requires a significant investment of time and effort; however, the result can be a rich and immersive reading experience.

Screenplays

Screenplays are written works intended for the screen, be it television, film, or online platforms. They require a specific format, incorporating dialogue and visual descriptions to guide the production process. Screenwriters must also consider the practical aspects of filmmaking, making this an intricate and specialized form of creative writing.

If you’re interested in this style, understanding creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree can provide useful insights.

Writing for the theater is another specialized form of creative writing. Plays, like screenplays, combine dialogue and action, but they also require an understanding of the unique dynamics of the theatrical stage. Playwrights must think about the live audience and the physical space of the theater when crafting their works.

Each of these styles offers unique opportunities for creativity and expression. Whether you’re drawn to the concise power of poetry, the detailed storytelling of novels, or the visual language of screenplays and plays, there’s a form of creative writing that will suit your artistic voice. The key is to explore, experiment, and find the style that resonates with you.

For those looking to spark their creativity, our article on creative writing prompts offers a wealth of ideas to get you started.

Importance of Creative Writing

Understanding what is creative writing involves recognizing its value and significance. Engaging in creative writing can provide numerous benefits – let’s take a closer look.

Developing Creativity and Imagination

Creative writing serves as a fertile ground for nurturing creativity and imagination. It encourages you to think outside the box, explore different perspectives, and create unique and original content. This leads to improved problem-solving skills and a broader worldview , both of which can be beneficial in various aspects of life.

Through creative writing, one can build entire worlds, create characters, and weave complex narratives, all of which are products of a creative mind and vivid imagination. This can be especially beneficial for those seeking creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Enhancing Communication Skills

Creative writing can also play a crucial role in honing communication skills. It demands clarity, precision, and a strong command of language. This helps to improve your vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, making it easier to express thoughts and ideas effectively .

Moreover, creative writing encourages empathy as you often need to portray a variety of characters from different backgrounds and perspectives. This leads to a better understanding of people and improved interpersonal communication skills.

Exploring Emotions and Ideas

One of the most profound aspects of creative writing is its ability to provide a safe space for exploring emotions and ideas. It serves as an outlet for thoughts and feelings , allowing you to express yourself in ways that might not be possible in everyday conversation.

Writing can be therapeutic, helping you process complex emotions, navigate difficult life events, and gain insight into your own experiences and perceptions. It can also be a means of self-discovery , helping you to understand yourself and the world around you better.

So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the benefits of creative writing are vast and varied. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills, check out our articles on creative writing prompts and how to teach creative writing . If you’re considering a career in this field, you might find our article on is a degree in creative writing worth it helpful.

4 Steps to Start Creative Writing

Creative writing can seem daunting to beginners, but with the right approach, anyone can start their journey into this creative field. Here are some steps to help you start creative writing .

1. Finding Inspiration

The first step in creative writing is finding inspiration . Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. Observe the world around you, listen to conversations, explore different cultures, and delve into various topics of interest.

Reading widely can also be a significant source of inspiration. Read different types of books, articles, and blogs. Discover what resonates with you and sparks your imagination.

For structured creative prompts, visit our list of creative writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

Editor’s Note : When something excites or interests you, stop and take note – it could be the inspiration for your next creative writing piece.

2. Planning Your Piece

Once you have an idea, the next step is to plan your piece . Start by outlining:

the main points

Remember, this can serve as a roadmap to guide your writing process. A plan doesn’t have to be rigid. It’s a flexible guideline that can be adjusted as you delve deeper into your writing. The primary purpose is to provide direction and prevent writer’s block.

3. Writing Your First Draft

After planning your piece, you can start writing your first draft . This is where you give life to your ideas and breathe life into your characters.

Don’t worry about making it perfect in the first go. The first draft is about getting your ideas down on paper . You can always refine and polish your work later. And if you don’t have a great place to write that first draft, consider a journal for writing .

4. Editing and Revising Your Work

The final step in the creative writing process is editing and revising your work . This is where you fine-tune your piece, correct grammatical errors, and improve sentence structure and flow.

Editing is also an opportunity to enhance your storytelling . You can add more descriptive details, develop your characters further, and make sure your plot is engaging and coherent.

Remember, writing is a craft that improves with practice . Don’t be discouraged if your first few pieces don’t meet your expectations. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, enjoy the creative process.

For more insights on creative writing, check out our articles on how to teach creative writing or creative writing activities for kids.

Tips to Improve Creative Writing Skills

Understanding what is creative writing is the first step. But how can one improve their creative writing skills? Here are some tips that can help.

Read Widely

Reading is a vital part of becoming a better writer. By immersing oneself in a variety of genres, styles, and authors, one can gain a richer understanding of language and storytelling techniques . Different authors have unique voices and methods of telling stories, which can serve as inspiration for your own work. So, read widely and frequently!

Practice Regularly

Like any skill, creative writing improves with practice. Consistently writing — whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly — helps develop your writing style and voice . Using creative writing prompts can be a fun way to stimulate your imagination and get the words flowing.

Attend Writing Workshops and Courses

Formal education such as workshops and courses can offer structured learning and expert guidance. These can provide invaluable insights into the world of creative writing, from understanding plot development to character creation. If you’re wondering is a degree in creative writing worth it, these classes can also give you a taste of what studying creative writing at a higher level might look like .

Joining Writing Groups and Communities

Being part of a writing community can provide motivation, constructive feedback, and a sense of camaraderie. These groups often hold regular meetings where members share their work and give each other feedback. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with others who share your passion for writing.

Seeking Feedback on Your Work

Feedback is a crucial part of improving as a writer. It offers a fresh perspective on your work, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Whether it’s from a writing group, a mentor, or even friends and family, constructive criticism can help refine your writing .

Start Creative Writing Today!

Remember, becoming a proficient writer takes time and patience. So, don’t be discouraged by initial challenges. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep enjoying the process. Who knows, your passion for creative writing might even lead to creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Happy writing!

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024:

Gratitude Journal Prompts Mindfulness Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Anxiety Reflective Journal Prompts Healing Journal Prompts Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Journal Prompts Mental Health Journal Prompts ASMR Journal Prompts Manifestation Journal Prompts Self-Care Journal Prompts Morning Journal Prompts Evening Journal Prompts Self-Improvement Journal Prompts Creative Writing Journal Prompts Dream Journal Prompts Relationship Journal Prompts "What If" Journal Prompts New Year Journal Prompts Shadow Work Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Overcoming Fear Journal Prompts for Dealing with Loss Journal Prompts for Discerning and Decision Making Travel Journal Prompts Fun Journal Prompts

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Book Marketing & Publishing Tips

How to Write a Book Description: Tips from BookBub Editors

July 6, 2023 by Lauren Aldrich

I’ve included screenshots of examples for reference — click on each image to read the book description in a new tab.

1. Keep your target audience and genre in mind

To attract the right readers to your book, you need to use language that really calls out to them. You can do this by purposefully keeping your specific genre in mind as you write your promotional copy.

If you’re writing fantasy, for example, that’s a great start — but what kind? Readers will look for you to tell them whether your book is an urban fantasy, a historical fantasy, an epic fantasy, or something else altogether. Don’t muddle the description with genre jargon that may overwhelm curious searchers, but do call out elements of the genre that you know readers like. What types of characters does your hypothetical fantasy story revolve around? Are they discovering their own magical abilities or embarking on an arduous quest? Highlighting the elements you love about your genre of choice will alert readers to your expertise and passion for the stories you’re writing and show them that they’ve found the book they’re looking for.

Another way to approach this task is to think of how readers looking for a book like yours might search online for relevant titles. What keywords and descriptors would they use? Make sure those are right there in your book description so no one has to scroll through pages of search results before they find your work.

Book Description For Blood & Ash By Deborah Wilde

You can see that this book description calls out two tropes (enemies-to-lovers romance and a female private eye) and a subgenre (“a hilarious paranormal mystery”) in the second line of text, making it easy for readers to immediately know what they’re looking at and whether or not it’s for them.

Book Description For Living Pain Free By Amanda Oswald

This tip works for nonfiction, too! This description immediately calls out what the book is (“an essential self-help guide”) along with a few keywords (“chronic pain” and “myofascial release”), so the reader can understand the book’s genre and contents at a quick glance.

2. Strike the right balance in your content

Beyond beckoning to genre readers with clear descriptors, you’ll also need to decide how much of your plot to include in your book description. This can be a real dilemma — include too little detail, and your book will seem bland and vague, with little to motivate your potential audience to buy it. Give away the whole thing, though, and no one will need to read the book to find out what happens!

To approach this conundrum, we suggest focusing your description on a couple of main hooks and a twist or two. A hook can be anything that makes your characters or your story unique. What’s so special about your main character? How did they land in their current situation? Look for the unexpected elements of your story and characters and highlight them just enough to pique readers’ interest, without explaining too much of the why or how. And don’t forget to add your twist: Hint at the part of the plot that’s going to send the whole story sideways. Most readers love to be surprised, so use your book description to promise them you’ll do just that if they pick up your book.

Book Description for Overboard by Sara Paretsky

In this description, we’re drawn in with a couple of hooks that leave us asking questions: An injured teen is hiding (why?). She disappears from the hospital when the detective helps her (where does she go?). And when the detective searches for her, we get the twist: The Mafia wants the teenage girl dead. Without spoiling the plot for us, this description has given us enough information to be intrigued and ready for more. We’re still left wondering where the girl went and how she came to be pursued by such powerful enemies, but we know enough about the book to decide whether it’s what we want to read or not.

Book Description For Love Notes By Aimee Brown

Here the author sets the scene: A female main character who doesn’t believe in love meets a nice guy looking for happily ever after. These are already effective hooks for a romance reader, but with the twist — an unnamed threat from the past resurfaces, putting the new relationship at risk — the reader has even greater incentive to buy the book to find out what happens next.

3. Get creative

Okay, so you’re telling readers what your book is. You’re giving them enough detail about the plot to get them intrigued. How else can you draw them in? Get creative with your words!

You can do this in all sorts of ways: Use humor to demonstrate a character’s personality. Employ evocative language to make the sentiment of the book clear. Highlight engaging quotes from trade publications or reader reviews to show that your book is unique and compelling. And above all, use a distinctive voice to make readers feel like they’re getting to know you and your work. What you’re saying in your book description is important, but how you say it can make all the difference to a potential reader.

Book Description For Wow No Thank You By Samantha Irby

Samantha Irby’s book description goes heavy on the humor so readers can get a sense of what the book itself will be like. Placing an evocative quote near the top of the text and pulling out humorous anecdotes from the book show readers clearly what to expect — and might get them chuckling before they even buy it.

Book Description For The Legion And The Lioness By R.D. Armstrong

Writing in the first person can be a creative and effective way to catch a reader’s attention. In this description, the narrator launches straight into a description of her past before outlining her current circumstances, pulling the reader into the story and perhaps even into rooting for her as she enters an interstellar war. We immediately get a feel for the tone of the book as a result of this strategy.

4. Include realistic and recognizable comps

A common practice in writing promotional copy for books is to compare the book or author to others in the genre that readers might already be familiar with. I’m not talking about comparing yourself to the genre’s greatest, most famous authors — but rather about finding the writers your future readers already flock to for their favorite books. If you’re not well acquainted with other authors writing in your lane, it’s time to do a little research!

Search for books in your genre with similar themes, plots, and covers to yours. Look for the authors with bigger ratings counts and followings and dive a little deeper. If the comparison stands up, consider mentioning that your book is great for fans of that author in your book description. It’s a helpful signal to readers that they’re on the right track when they’re looking for new content, and the familiar names will show you’re on top of trends in your subgenre.

Book Description For First Ritual By Kelly St. Clare

This description smartly offers three relevant comps to other authors, so readers who recognize those names will understand that they’ve found a book in the same wheelhouse as an author they already know.

Book Description For The Diva Says Cheesecake by Krista Davis

In this description, the book is compared not just to another author but to a popular series. This is a way to offer an even more specific clue to readers about the type of book you’re offering!

5. Use formatting to your advantage

Retailers allow you to use all kinds of formatting — from bolded and italic text to changing the font size — so it may be overwhelming to think about what you can and should do with your book description to make it stand out.

I think it’s great to keep it simple — too much formatting will make the text look scattered or hard to read — but using something like a simple bolded sentence at the top of your description can help catch a reader’s attention and draw them in, either by telling them about the book’s plot and genre or by putting forth a main hook. Use line breaks or paragraphs to make your text readable and approachable. Just remember, any formatting you use should make the description look clean, crisp, and easy to read.

Here, the author uses a single bolded sentence at the top of the description to tell the reader exactly what they’re getting in terms of author, plot, and genre.

Book Description For The Ellie O'Conner Suspense Series By Jack Hardin

Formatting can be especially helpful for descriptions of box sets. This author’s use of line breaks, bolded text, and italics helps potential readers easily see all the content they’re getting and parse out each book’s plot, a couple of reader quotes, and a discount offer. The description is long, but it’s broken up in a way that looks clear and easy to read.

6. Proofread!

Last but never least, all this hard work can go to naught if you don’t proofread. Don’t go to the trouble of researching, writing, and formatting your book description without making sure you get a couple of sets of trusted eyes on your work to make sure it’s free of typos, spelling and grammar errors, and incorrect formatting. Potential readers want to know they can trust you to write and edit well, and your book description is your first and best chance to prove that to them. Pay close attention to detail and have a friend or editor look over your copy before you publish it.

You’ve worked long and hard on your book, and you deserve for it to do as well as it possibly can with readers. Focusing your energy and attention on creating a stellar book description will only help you on your way to your goal of reaching your perfect audience and getting your book into their hands. I hope these tips have given you food for thought and will help you create an impactful, enticing book description that spurs readers to buy your book!

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How to Write a Book Description That Attracts Readers: 8 Easy Tips

POSTED ON Oct 25, 2023

Written by Sharyl Calhoun

Learning how to write a book description that actually gets people interested in buying your book is important for increasing book sales and creating buzz.

Think about it. What makes you pick up or download a new book at the bookstore?

Unless you are a huge fan of the book’s author, you’re first drawn to a catchy title and cover appeal – a provocative illustration or that unique book cover design .

But when you want to know if the book is worth reading (and worth paying good money for), you flip to the back cover or read the description on the website.

There (or just inside the cover), the author has written a “blurb” or description about the book .

The book description includes just enough about what is going to happen in the book, to make the reader yearn for answers to all the questions flitting through his or her mind…if the author has succeeded in writing a captivating description . So how do you write a book description successfully?

For self-published authors, it's even more important to craft the ultimate book description , so that when people land on your book's site page, they will be drawn to purchase or download your book. You don't want all the work you did writing the book to go to waste.

So how do authors do it, you ask? In this article, we'll show you how to write a book description that sells, captivates, and entices the reader to keep reading.

This blog on how to write a book description will cover:

8 tips for how to write a book description that sells.

Whether you're a fiction or nonfiction author, your book description is the reader's first introduction to the pages beyond the cover. It's important to capture interest, spark interest in the topic or theme, and give them just enough information that they can't help but buy the book for the whole story.

Just follow these tips for how to write a book description, and no one will want to put your book down!

1. Start with a hook sentence

What is the critical issue in your book…the problem that demands to be solved? You need to know the answer before you can learn how to write a book description successfully.

With clever wording, a problem statement might be a great hook to catch potential readers’ attention. Then you can “reel” them in to purchase your book, using the rest of your well-worded blurb.

2. Write in the 3rd person point of view

When you write a book description, you should use the 3rd person point of view. That means using no “I’s” or “you’s”…only “he” or “she.” In fact, it shouldn't even be written in your “author voice.” When learning how to write a book description, you should pretend to be someone else who is describing your book to potential readers.

3. Word your book description in a way that evokes emotion on-the-spot!

Does the main character greatly fear something? Make the reader feel a bit of that fear. Has the character suffered great loss?

Make the reader sympathize with the character’s distress. We want to understand the emotions the character is going through and what the character motivation is. This can help readers get hooked before they even turn the first page.

4. Tell enough about the plot to make people want to read the book

Introduce the main character and the problem of your story in a compelling way. Offer just enough hints about events in the story to pique reader interest without giving away any of the juicy details.

5. Focus on your book, not on yourself!

When learning how to write a book description, you shouldn't make it about yourself. A brief author byline is fine, but readers want to know about the book! If you must mention yourself, remember to continue writing in the 3rd person point of view. Refer to yourself as he or she – you are merely acting as a reporter.

Place the byline last, with a definite space to separate it from the exciting book description.

In most book descriptions, you'll find a short paragraph about the author only after the actual book teaser has been given.

Here is an example of how to write a book description that includes a concise, informational paragraph about the author.

6. Don’t give away the ending

This might be a no-brainer, but while practicing how to write a book description, you can't give away the conclusion!

If you share the end of your book on your book cover, why will the reader bother to open the pages?

Give just enough information so that the reader can understand the story's setting and context, but don't give away the entire storyline. Leave the reader intrigued enough to want to purchase your book, so that they can discover the ending or any surprise twists on their own.

7. Add a brief testimonial or endorsement

Only use this feature if it enhances your book description.

The testimonial is a brief blurb by someone who has read the book and has found help or satisfaction by reading your book.
An endorsement is usually a succinctly-worded paragraph by someone, whose authority the reader will recognize, who reads your book and agrees that you are qualified to write this particular book.

8. Keep practicing!

The best way to learn how to write a book description is to write a bunch of them! Write multiple attempts of your book description. Revise your favorite version as many times as you need to, until you are satisfied with the results. Of course, sometimes, the only way to learn how to write a book description that actually sells is to get outside input. While you will make the final decision for the book description, it is important to listen to outside suggestions. After all, YOU are not the person buying your book!

Let several colleagues and potential readers (of the appropriate age level) look over your best attempts and offer their input.

BONUS: How to write a book description for nonfiction books

If you are trying to learn how to write a book description for a nonfiction book, it might be slightly different than a fiction book. After all, you aren't evoking character emotions or teasing about a plot!

Use these questions to help you learn how to write a book description for nonfiction works:

Do you offer a unique point of view on a particular topic?
Do you have years of experience in research or practice?
Does your “author’s voice” appeal to the reader in a special way?
Do you bring new knowledge to the reader which other writers have not done?
Are the illustrations or photographs of exceptional quality and rarity?

How to write a book description, when the book is not yours…

If you’re writing a book description for someone else’s back cover, be sure to follow the suggestions above.

Several years ago, I was privileged to be a ghostwriter for a unique book of memoirs. You can read the book description I provided at Harbor Knight: From Harbor ‘Hoodlum’ to Honored CIA Agent .

When writing the back cover description for a book of memoirs that stretches over a lifetime, it can be challenging to pinpoint that single, most important thread that describes the path this person has trodden through life.

But that is precisely what you need to share with the reader. What made this person unique?

If this is a book of memoirs , you need to know the person’s story fairly well in order to learn how to write a book description about them. Do a brief interview to understand the person’s background. Make sure that you read the whole book manuscript. This will help you find common themes and personality traits that run from one decade into the next.

Use the person’s own words, when possible, so that his or her voice is heard. Be respectful with this task you’ve been asked to perform.

If (for some reason) you find the manuscript distasteful and feel that you are not able to offer a captivating description for the back cover, do the right thing. Turn down the request to write this particular book description.

Now that you have plenty of tips for how to write a book description, I'd like to show you a few examples of my own book descriptions so you can learn from them and from their writing process.

A few examples of how to write a book description

Here is an example of a back cover description from my first children’s chapter book .

Swimming brings back a nightmare that Rebecca Fishburn would much rather forget. So when the gym teacher announces plans to take the class swimming for the next two weeks, Reb can think of nothing else…and she is terrified! She must do whatever it takes to stay out of the water. Reb is convinced that she must lie…or she just might drown! Reb Fishburn: In Too Deep

I played around with the description for several weeks, before settling on the blurb (see above) for my back cover. I wanted to write “ Reb is convinced that she must lie or she just might die.” I wanted to help the reader experience the enormity of Reb’s fear.

But after sharing this rough draft with other elementary school teachers and parents, they felt that the sentence wording was too horrific for the young reader.

I took their advice and changed that single word. After all, the potential buyers of my book include teachers and parents. If they found the sentence offensive, so might many others.

For another children’s book I wrote, I used a simile to tease the reader’s curiosity :

You might not expect to discover gold on a country farm, but Grandpa knows just where to find this hidden treasure. Dig into Grandpa’s Hidden Gold Farm for a sweet and yummy treat! Grandpa's Hidden Gold Farm

The cover illustrations and the title offer clues about the kind of hidden treasure tucked inside the book, but the description never mentions bees or honey!

Sophia and the Bully is a children’s book I wrote for Hameray Publishing’s Kaleidoscope series. The company chose the following description to sell this book (202 words) on their website:

It is the first day of school for a new student and she is faced with a bully. This book helps readers understand that sometimes the most bothersome people may just be needing a friend. Sophia and the Bully

The person writing this description chose to offer the reader a brief main idea paragraph , without revealing any of the events from the story. The book, written for beginning readers, contains only 12 pages. In that case, describing any single event would be to give away the whole story!

When deciding how to write a book description, you must think of who your audience will be, and make your book description appeal to those individuals.

A teacher, for example, is drawn in by the simple description of this little book for several reasons:

Throughout the school year in most teachers’ classrooms, new students come and go.
Just because a child can do annoying things to other students, that does not mean the child is a bully.
Students need to know the difference between a bully and a potential friend .
Bullying is a theme the school wants addressed in the classroom.
Reading a book aloud to the class or having a small group of beginning readers read the book together offers the teacher a non-threatening way to discuss bullying.

Obviously, the genre of your book will affect how to write a book description greatly.

Here is how to write a book description for other genres:

A cookbook may entice readers with delicious words and samplings from the specific type of recipes written between the covers.
A thriller might show the comparison between this book and a similar tale by a better-known author–with just enough details to send chills up the reader’s spine.
A romance will certainly tug on the reader’s heartstrings, divulging the names of the main characters and suggesting a problem that could keep the two from coming together!
A nonfiction book will provide an overview of what new and exciting concepts or facts the reader is going to learn. If any special chapters, illustrations or photos are included in the book, these should be mentioned in the book description.
A self-help book will describe the book’s layout and explain why the author is qualified to write a new book on this particular topic. A few details or a real-life example from the chapters within will show the reader that he or she may have finally found the answer to his or her problem.
A historical fiction book will place the fictional main character within an accurately depicted time and place, when an event of great magnitude (from actual history) is about to happen – and a captivating book description will include all of these details.

…and the list goes on.

The best way to know how much detail to include in your description is by traveling to the local library or bookstore and holding real books in your hand.

There, you’ll have thousands of books at your fingertips. You will quickly realize how one author works his or her magic, causing you to want to read more, and why another author’s book cover fails to pique your interest.

Become familiar with how other writers within your genre handle the back cover book description. See for yourself how the title, cover illustrations, and book description work together to make the reader want to know what lies within the pages.

Spread your book description far and wide!

The primary reason you have just spent so much time and energy writing this winning book description is to sell your book !

Write it. Rewrite it. Play with adjectives, phrases, and different literary techniques . Move sentences around to make it flow more easily.

Remember, if you must put your byline on the back cover, do so at the very end.

Set it apart from the book description…unless, of course, you’ve already written a popular book or you are famous in some other way. Then your name is almost as important as your book’s content.

Be clever. And give this book cover the most captivating description that you have ever read!

If your book description is clever enough, the “blurb” that you have just written can be used to promote your book in many places .

Here's where to include your book description:

Newspaper press release (this is free advertisement, in most newspapers)
Your book launch event (this may be free if you agree to be interviewed)
Catalog item description for companies who will sell your book
Letter to potential storefronts wanting to sell your book
Brochure for groups wanting to use your book for book talk
Amazon listing
Your author website
Social media posts–personal and professional sites

Now you know exactly how to write a book description and what to do with it when you are done – so get your words out there and wow the world.

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How to Write a Great Book Description

In the order of book marketing importance: first goes title, then cover, then book description. If you want to sell your book, you've got to nail your book description. Your title and cover can grab a potential reader, but your book description does all of the hard work. It intrigues the reader, teases a soul-stirring adventure, and bids them to open the book or, better yet, buy it.

While they may open up and read the first sentence or paragraph, it's ultimately the book description that drives the reader to say, “Heck yeah! Let me give this book a chance.”

Your book description plays an essential role in selling your book, no matter your genre, no matter your audience. So, let’s discuss how to do it right.

What is a Book Description?

Your book description isn’t a point-by-point summary of your book. Instead, it’s more like a movie trailer in written form. It sets up the main plot, introduces the characters, gives flashes of conflict, and emphasizes the theme. It’s an ad, and its goal is to hype the reader into purchasing the book.

Where Does a Book Description Go?

Your book description will show up in at least these four places:

The back cover of your book

Your book’s listing page on Amazon (and all other booksellers)

Your book’s landing page on your website

Your downloadable press kit

Also, excerpts of your book description may be used when someone interviews you or reviews your book.

Here are 10 questions to answer when writing your book description. Subscribe to receive this extra resource.

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Why is Writing a Book Description So Hard?

Writing a book description is right up there with writing a resume on the level of difficulty. But why?

First of all, it's tough to distill 100,000+ words into a few paragraphs. What do you focus on? What should you put in your description that will accurately describe the story without giving too much away?

Second of all, writing a book description requires a different skill set. You need to think like a copywriter to truly master book blurbs. You have to grab their attention, generate their interest, elicit their desire, and then inspire them to act. That’s a shift from storytelling.

Your book is a story but your book description is an ad.

If you’re never written an ad before, then you’ll need some help. But don’t worry, below, we’ll discuss what you need to know to kill it.

1. Keep it Short

When it comes to your book description’s word count, you have a budget of approximately 250 words to play with—and that's the upper limit. ( Amazon recommends keeping your blurb to 150 words and caps you at 4,000 characters or around 500 words.)

After writing 100,000+ words, 250 seems like nothing. But it's everything at the same time. Every single syllable in your book description matters because people can stop reading the description at any time. If your word choice is off, if they've lost the excitement, if your description turns generic and formulaic, if your writing is unclear, or if you write too much in your description…you will lose your potential reader.

For some writers, 250 words aren't enough. So they just ignore it and write more. And for book covers, they may use a super-small font to fit all of their words.

Here’s the reason why you can't cheat the word count: Most people won't read beyond 250 words anyway. At that point, they'll decide whether they want to buy or move on to another option. So that’s why it’s best to work within the parameters of a teeny-tiny word count.

2. Hook the Reader Right Away

So, you have a small word count, but the first few words matter the most. Hook the reader right away with a shocking statement.

Here's the introductory line from the audiobook description for Jack Carr's The Terminal List :

“A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller.”

What can we learn from this book description? Pack as much into the first sentence as possible. Hint at the protagonist’s conflict, both external and internal.

Then, continue to build on what you’ve already shared by setting the scene and delving into the back story just a tad. In your hook, introduce the reader to your protagonist and give them a reason to care.

Dangle a carrot. Promise a good time. And do it as quickly as possible.

3. Leave Them on a Cliff

Your first sentence should hook them, and your last sentence should leave them teetering on the edge. If they make it to the end of your book description, they should have an overwhelming urge to buy it to find out what happens next.

A great way to do that is by asking a question that makes your reader think.

Check out the ending of this book description for The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy:

“In wartime, the three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart?”

4. Keep a Singular Focus

Remember that your book description should only introduce the main character and the main conflict. It should not discuss subplots. There’s no need to bring in secondary characters either. Focus on the character whose head your reader will be inhabiting.

5. Make it Scannable

Fact: We don't have the same attention span that our grandparents enjoyed. A study found that goldfish have a longer attention span than the modern human of the 2020s. So, even if you hook the reader with the intro of your book description, you'll still need to make your text scannable.

How do you make scan-friendly text?

Create short paragraphs. Throw out everything you’ve ever heard about five-sentence paragraphs. Instead, use shorter paragraphs to quickly share information without slowing down the reader.

Add bullet points. Use bullet points to deliver important information. This is particularly useful for nonfiction books to emphasize key points.

Bold text. This is another way to emphasize important points. Bold words or phrases that you want to stand out from the rest of the text.

Check out this book description for The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. It uses bold text, short paragraphs, and a series of quick sentences to immediately draw the reader in.

Image Courtesy of Amazon

6. Use Keywords

Keywords aren't just for website searches. Amazon, and other bookseller websites, function very much like a search engine. Add keywords to your book description to quickly convey what your book is about. Including keywords in your description will also improve your book’s discoverability because people tend to use these terms when searching for new books to read.

For example, a quick Amazon search for “redemptive romance” turned up (among others) Francine Rivers' The Masterpiece .

In the book description for The Masterpiece , “redemptive” shows up twice (three if you count the subtitle), and “romance” shows up four times (or five when considering the subtitle).

Because keywords help your book get found, be sure to include a few of them in your book description. Amazon will also give you the option to add seven more keywords, but it won’t hurt to include them in your book description. This way, you’ll speak directly to the reader and help them understand what your book is about in context.

7. Shout Out Your Series

Is this book part of a series? Let the reader know. Some readers prefer series and are more likely to purchase a book if they know that there's more to come. This is especially true if they like the premise of your book and your writing style (which they can glean from the first couple of paragraphs).

Here’s a simple shoutout that you’ll find in the description for Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan :

“Plus don't miss The One and Only Bob, Katherine Applegate's return to the world of Ivan, Bob, and Ruby!”

8. Showcase Your Awards

Has your book won awards or made it onto any must-read lists? Toot your own horn here. It’s an ad, after all. Share that social proof to persuade the reader that your book is worth the gamble.

In addition to sharing accolades, also add positive reviews to bolster your credibility. Cherry-pick the best reviews from well-known publications or respected authors in your genre.

That's how the book description for Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations starts:

With all of those descriptors, how could you not want to read more? Reviews will inspire trust, so add them to your book description. This also includes book reviews from “regular” readers. Never underestimate the persuasive power of a review— any review.

Final Thoughts

When writing a book blurb, remember that your goal is to create an ad for your book. It should only give the reader a glimpse of what’s ahead. Don’t give away too much and leave them asking for more.

Before you go, check out these related posts:

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The 20+ Best Books on Creative Writing

If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I write a book?”, “How do I write a short story?”, or “How do I write a poem?” you’re not alone. I’m halfway done my MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts , and I ask myself these questions a lot, too, though I’m noticing that by now I feel more comfortable with the answers that fit my personal craft. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing candidate, or even a college graduate, in order to soak up the great Wisdom of Words, as I like to call it. Another word for it is craft . That’s because there are so many great books out there on writing craft. In this post, I’ll guide you through 20+ of the most essential books on creative writing. These essential books for writers will teach you what you need to know to write riveting stories and emotionally resonant books—and to sell them.

I just also want to put in a quick plug for my post with the word count of 175 favorite novels . This resource is helpful for any writer.

Now, with that done… Let’s get to it!

What Made the List of Essential Books for Writers—and What Didn’t

So what made the list? And what didn’t?

Unique to this list, these are all books that I have personally used in my journey as a creative and commercial writer.

That journey started when I was 15 and extended through majoring in English and Creative Writing as an undergrad at UPenn through becoming a freelance writer in 2014, starting this book blog, pursuing my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts , and publishing some fiction and nonfiction books myself . My point here is not to boast, just to explain that these books have all helped me better understand and apply the craft, discipline, and business of writing over the course of more than half my life as I’ve walked the path to become a full-time writer. Your mileage my vary , but each of these books have contributed to my growth as a writer in some way. I’m not endorsing books I’ve never read or reviewed. This list comes from my heart (and pen!).

Most of these books are geared towards fiction writers, not poetry or nonfiction writers

It’s true that I’m only one human and can only write so much in one post. Originally, I wanted this list to be more than 25 books on writing. Yes, 25 books! But it’s just not possible to manage that in a single post. What I’ll do is publish a follow-up article with even more books for writers. Stay tuned!

The most commonly recommended books on writing are left out.

Why? Because they’re everywhere! I’m aiming for under-the-radar books on writing, ones that aren’t highlighted often enough. You’ll notice that many of these books are self-published because I wanted to give voice to indie authors.

But I did want to include a brief write-up of these books… and, well, you’ve probably heard of them, but here are 7 of the most recommended books on writing:

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – With her guided practice on how to rejuvenate your art over the course of 16 weeks, Cameron has fashioned an enduring classic about living and breathing your craft (for artists as well as writers). This book is perhaps best known for popularizing the morning pages method.

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner – If you want to better understand how fiction works, John Gardner will be your guide in this timeless book.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – A beloved writing book on process, craft, and overcoming stumbling blocks (both existential and material).

On Writing by Stephen King – A must-read hybrid memoir-craft book on the writer mythos and reality for every writer.

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose – A core writing book that teaches you how to read with a writer’s eye and unlock the ability to recognize and analyze craft for yourself.

Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin – Many writers consider this to be their bible on craft and storytelling.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg – A favorite of many writers, this book takes an almost spiritual approach to the art, craft, and experience of writing.

I’m aiming for under-the-radar books on writing on my list.

These books are all in print.

Over the years, I’ve picked up several awesome books on creative writing from used bookstores. Oh, how I wish I could recommend these! But many of them are out of print. The books on this list are all available new either as eBooks, hardcovers, or paperbacks. I guess this is the right time for my Affiliate Link disclaimer:

This article contains affiliate links, which means I might get a small portion of your purchase. For more on my affiliate link policy, check out my official Affiliate Link Disclaimer .

You’ll notice a lot of the books focus on the business of writing.

Too often, money is a subject that writers won’t talk about. I want to be upfront about the business of writing and making a living as a writer (or not ) with these books. It’s my goal to get every writer, even poets!, to look at writing not just from a craft perspective, but from a commercial POV, too.

And now on to the books!

Part i: the best books on writing craft, the anatomy of story by john truby.

For you if: You want to develop an instinctive skill at understanding the contours of storytelling .

All I want to do as a writer, my MO, is tell good stories well. It took me so long to understand that what really matters to me is good storytelling. That’s it—that’s the essence of what we do as writers… tell good stories well. And in The Anatomy of Story , legendary screenwriting teacher John Truby takes you through story theory. This book is packed with movie references to illustrate the core beat points in story, and many of these example films are actually literary adaptations, making this a crossover craft book for fiction writers and screenwriters alike.

How to read it: Purchase The Anatomy of Story on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The art of memoir by mary karr.

For you if: You’re writing a memoir book or personal essays .

Nobody is a better person to teach memoir writing than Mary Karr, whose memoirs The Liar’s Club and Lit are considered classics of the genre. In The Art of Memoir , Karr delivers a master class on memoir writing, adapted from her experience as a writer and a professor in Syracuse’s prestigious MFA program. What I love about this book as an aspiring memoirist is Karr’s approach, which blends practical, actionable advice with more bigger-picture concepts on things like truth vs. fact in memoir storytelling. Like I said in the intro to this list, I didn’t include many nonfiction and poetry books on this list, but I knew I had to make an exception for The Art of Memoir .

How to read it: Purchase The Art of Memoir on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The emotional craft of fiction by donald maass.

For you if: Plot isn’t your problem, it’s character .

From literary agent Donald Maass, The Emotional Craft of Fiction gives you the skill set you need to master emotionally engaging fiction. Maass’s technique is to show you how readers get pulled into the most resonant, engaging, and unforgettable stories: by going through an emotional journey nimbly crafted by the author. The Emotional Craft of Fiction is a must-have work of craft to balance more plot-driven craft books.

How to read it: Purchase the The Emotional Craft of Fiction on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

How to Write Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson

For you if: You need a quick-and-dirty plotting technique that’s easy to memorize .

I first heard of the “Snowflake Method” in the National Novel Writing Month forums (which, by the way, are excellent places for finding writing craft worksheets, book recommendations, and online resources). In How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method , the Snowflake Method is introduced by its creator. This quick yet thorough plotting and outlining structure is humble and easy to master. If you don’t have time to read a bunch of books on outlining and the hundreds of pages that would require, check out How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method for a quick, 235-page read.

How to read it: Purchase How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Meander, spiral, explode: design and pattern in narrative by jane alison.

For you if: You want to do a deep dive understanding of the core theory of story, a.k.a. narrative.

A most unconventional writing craft book, Meander, Spiral, Explode offers a theory of narrative (story) as recognizable patterns. According to author Jane Alison, there are three main narrative narratives in writing: meandering, spiraling, and exploding. This cerebral book (chock full of examples!) is equal parts seminar on literary theory as it is craft, and it will make you see and understand storytelling better than maybe any book on this list.

How to read it: Purchase Meander, Spiral, Explode on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The modern library writer’s workshop by stephen koch.

For you if: You’re wondering what it means to be the writer you want to become .

This is one of the earliest creative writing books I ever bought and it remains among the best I’ve read. Why? Reading The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop echoes the kind of mind-body-spirit approach you need to take to writing. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop doesn’t teach you the nuts and bolts of writing as much as it teaches you how to envision the machine. Koch zooms out to big picture stuff as much as zeroes in on the little details. This is an outstanding book about getting into the mindset of being a writer, not just in a commercial sense, but as your passion and identity. It’s as close as you’ll get to the feel of an MFA in Fiction education.

How to read it: Purchase The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Romancing the beat by gwen hayes.

For you if: You write or edit the romance genre and want a trusted plotting strategy to craft the perfect love story .

If you’re writing romance, you have to get Gwen Hayes’s Romancing the Beat . This book breaks down the plot points or “beats” you want to hit when you’re crafting your romance novel. When I worked as a romance novel outliner (yes, a real job), our team used Romancing the Beat as its bible; every outline was structured around Hayes’s formula. For romance writers (like myself) I cannot endorse it any higher.

How to read it: Purchase Romancing the Beat on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Save the cat writes a novel by jessica brody.

For you if: You have big ideas for a plot but need to work on the smaller moments that propel stories .

Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel adapts Blake Snyder’s bestselling screenwriting book Save the Cat! into story craft for writing novels. Brody reworks the Save the Cat! methodology in actionable, point-by-point stages of story that are each explained with countless relevant examples. If you want to focus your efforts on plot, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is an excellent place to go to start learning the ins and outs of what makes a good story.

How to read it: Purchase Save the Cat! Writes a Novel on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Story genius by lisa cron.

For you if: You’re a pantser and are terrified at outlining yet also realize you might have a “plot problem .”

More than any other book, Lisa Cron’s Story Genius will get you where you need to go for writing amazing stories. Story Genius helps you look at plotting differently, starting from a point of characterization in which our protagonists have a clearly defined need and misbelief that play off each other and move the story forward from an emotional interior and action exterior standpoint. For many of my fellow MFA students—and myself— Story Genius is the missing link book for marrying plot and character so you innately understand the contours of good story.

How to read it: Purchase Story Genius on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Wonderbook: the illustrated guide to creating imaginative fiction by jeff vandermeer.

For you if: You’re writing in a speculative fiction genre—like science fiction, fantasy, or horror—or are trying to better understand those genres.

Jeff VanderMeer’s Wonderbook is a dazzling gem of a book and a can’t-miss-it writing book for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers. This book will teach you all the skills you need to craft speculative fiction, like world-building, with micro-lessons and close-reads of excellent works in these genres. Wonderbook is also one to linger over, with lavish illustrations and every inch and corner crammed with craft talk for writing imaginative fiction (sometimes called speculative fiction). And who better to guide you through this than Jeff VanderMeer, author of the popular Southern Reach Trilogy, which kicks off with Annihilation , which was adapted into a feature film.

How to read it: Purchase Wonderbook on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Writing picture books by ann whitford paul.

For you if: You’re looking to write picture books and/or understand how they work .

This book is the only one you need to learn how to write and sell picture books. As an MFA student studying children’s literature, I’ve consulted with this book several times as I’ve dipped my toes into writing picture books, a form I considered scary and intimidating until reading this book. Writing Picture Books should be on the shelf of any writer of children’s literature. a.k.a. “kid lit.”

How to read it: Purchase Writing Picture Books on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Writing with emotion, conflict, and tension by cheryl st. john.

For you if: You need to work on the conflict, tension, and suspense that keep readers turning pages and your story going forward .

Mmm, conflict. As I said earlier, it’s the element of fiction writing that makes a story interesting and a key aspect of characterization that is underrated. In Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict , bestselling romance author Cheryl St. John offers a masterclass on the delicate dance between incorporating conflict, the emotions it inspires in characters, and the tension that results from those two factors.

How to read it: Purchase Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Part ii: the best books on the productivity, mfas, and the business of writing, 2k to 10k: writing faster, writing better, and writing more of what you love by rachel aaron.

For you if: You struggle to find the time to write and always seem to be a chapter or two behind schedule .

If you’re struggling to find time of your own to write with competing obligations (family, work, whatever) making that hard, you need Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k . This book will get you in shape to go from writing just a few words an hour to, eventually, 10,000 words a day. Yes, you read that right. 10,000 words a day. At that rate, you can complete so many more projects and publish more. Writers simply cannot afford to waste time if they want to keep up the kind of production that leads to perpetual publication. Trust me, Aaron’s method works. It has for me. I’m on my way to 10k in the future, currently at like 4 or 5k a day for me at the moment.

How to read it: Purchase 2k to 10k on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The 3 a.m. epiphany by brian kitele.

For you if: You’re going through writer’s block, have been away from writing for a while, or just want to loosen up and try something new .

Every writer must own an an exercise or prompt book. Why? Because regularly practicing your writing by going outside your current works-in-progress (or writer’s block) will free you up, help you plant the seeds for new ideas, and defrost your creative blocks. And the best book writing exercise book I know is The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley, an MFA professor who uses prompts like these with his grad students. You’ll find that this book (and its sequel, The 4 A.M. Breakthrough ) go beyond cutesy exercises and forces you to push outside your comfort zone and learn something from the writing you find there.

How to read it: Purchase The 3 A.M. Epiphany on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The 4-hour workweek by timothy ferriss.

For you if: You think being a writer means you have to be poor .

The 4-Hour Workweek changed my life. Although not strictly about writing in the traditional sense, The 4-Hour Workweek does an excellent job teaching you about how passive income can offer you freedom. I first heard about The 4-Hour Workweek when I was getting into tarot in 2013. On Biddy Tarot , founder Brigit (author of some of the best books on tarot ) related how she read this book, learned how to create passive income, and quit her corporate job to read tarot full time. As a person with a total and permanent disability, this spoke to me because it offered a way out of the 9-to-5 “active” income that I thought was the only way. I picked up Ferriss’s book and learned that there’s more than one option, and that passive income is a viable way for me to make money even when I’m too sick to work. I saw this come true last year when I was in the hospital. When I got out, I checked my stats and learned I’d made money off my blog and books even while I was hospitalized and couldn’t do any “active” work. I almost cried.; I’ve been working on my passive income game since 2013, and I saw a return on that time investment when I needed it most.

That’s why I’m recommending The 4-Hour Workweek to writers. So much of our trade is producing passive income products. Yes, your books are products! And for many writers, this means rewiring your brain to stop looking at writing strictly as an art that will leave you impoverished for life and start approaching writing as a business that can earn you a real living through passive income. No book will help you break out of that mindset better than The 4-Hour Workweek and its actionable steps, proven method, and numerous examples of people who have followed the strategy and are living the lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of but never thought was possible.

How to read it: Purchase The 4-Hour Workweek on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book by Courtney Maum

For you if: You’re serious about making a living as a writer and publishing with a Big 5 or major indie publisher .

Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal addresses exactly what its title suggests: what happens after you sell your first book. This book is for ambitious writers intent on submission who know they want to write and want to avoid common pitfalls while negotiating terms and life after your debut. As many published authors would tell you, the debut is one thing, but following that book up with a sustainable, successful career is another trick entirely. Fortunately, we have Maum’s book, packed with to-the-moment details and advice.

How to read it: Purchase Before and After the Book Deal on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Diy mfa: write with focus, read with purpose, build your community by gabriela pereira.

For you if: You’re stressed out wondering if you really need an MFA .

The MFA is under this header “business of writing” because it is absolutely an economic choice you make. And, look, I’m biased. I’m getting an MFA. But back when I was grappling with whether or not it was worth it—the debt, the time, the stress—I consulted with DIY MFA , an exceptional guide to learning how to enrich your writing craft, career, and community outside the structures of an MFA program. I’ve also more than once visited the companion site, DIYMFA.com , to find a kind of never-ending rabbit hole of new and timeless content on the writing life. On DIYMFA.com and in the corresponding book, you’ll find a lively hub for author interviews, writing craft shop talk, reading lists, and business of writing articles.

How to read it: Purchase DIY MFA on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Mfa vs. nyc by chad harbach.

For you if: You’re wondering how far an MFA really gets you—and you’re ready to learn the realities of the publishing world .

About a thousand years ago (well, in 2007), I spent the fall of my sophomore year of college as a “Fiction Submissions and Advertising Intern” for the literary magazine n+1 , which was co-founded by Chad Harbach, who you might know from his buzzy novel, The Art of Fielding . In MFA vs NYC , Harbach offers his perspective as both an MFA graduate and someone deeply enmeshed in the New York City publishing industry. This thought-provoking look at these two arenas that launch writers will pull the wool up from your eyes about how publishing really works . It’s not just Harbach’s voice you get in here, though. The book, slim but mighty, includes perspectives from the likes of George Saunders and David Foster Wallace in the MFA camp and Emily Gould and Keith Gessen speaking to NYC’s writing culture.

How to read it: Purchase MFA vs. NYC on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Scratch: writers, money, and the art of making a living – edited by manjula martin.

For you if: a) You’re worried about how to balance writing with making a living; b) You’re not worried about how to balance writing with making a living .

Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living is alternately one of the most underrated and essential books on writing out there. This collection of personal essays and interviews all revolve around the taboo theme of how writers make their living, and it’s not always—indeed, rarely—through writing alone. Some of the many contributing authors include Cheryl Strayed ( Wild ), Alexander Chee ( How to Write an Autobiographical Novel ), Jennifer Weiner ( Mrs. Everything ), Austin Kleon ( Steal Like an Artist ), and many others. Recently a young woman asked me for career advice on being a professional freelance writer, and I made sure to recommend Scratch as an eye-opening and candid read that is both motivating and candid.

How to read it: Purchase Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Write to market: deliver a book that sells by chris fox.

For you if: You don’t know why your books aren’t selling—and you want to start turning a profit by getting a real publishing strategy

So you don’t have to be an indie author to internalize the invaluable wisdom you’ll find here in Write to Market . I first heard about Write to Market when I first joined the 20Booksto50K writing group on Facebook , a massive, supportive, motivating community of mostly indie authors. Everyone kept talking about Write to Market . I read the book in a day and found the way I looked at publishing change. Essentially, what Chris Fox does in Write to Market is help you learn to identify what are viable publishing niches. Following his method, I’ve since published several successful and #1 bestselling books in the quotations genre on Amazon . Without Fox’s book, I’m not sure I would have gotten there on my own.

How to read it: Purchase Write to Market on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

And that’s a wrap what are some of your favorite writing books, share this:, you might be interested in.

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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You are currently viewing Sensory Descriptions in Creative Writing

Post author: Timothy R Carter
Post published: January 19, 2024
Post category: Creative Writing
Post last modified: February 16, 2024
Reading time: 21 mins read

Embarking on the craft of storytelling through creative writing, you will soon discover that setting the scene with rich, sensory details can transport your reader to the world you’ve conjured. “Balancing Sensory Descriptions in Creative Writing” offers a treasure trove of techniques to help you enhance your narratives without overwhelming your audience. You’ll learn to wield the senses with precision, using sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell to breathe life into your characters’ experiences while ensuring a harmonious and immersive reading experience that’s as vivid as it is believable. Embrace the power of subtlety and strength in your descriptions, and watch as your words paint worlds that leap off the page into the imagination.

Understanding Sensory Descriptions

Definition of sensory descriptions in creative writing.

Imagine you’re painting a picture with words. Just as a painter uses a palette of colors to bring a scene to life, you can use sensory descriptions to create a vivid tableau in your reader’s mind. In creative writing, sensory descriptions involve the depiction of experiences and elements in a narrative that appeal to the five senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. These details enable your readers to fully “experience” the story as if they are part of the world you’re crafting.

The five senses and their role in storytelling

The five senses serve as gateways through which your readers connect with your story. By describing what a character sees, hears, feels, tastes, and smells, you invite your reader to step into the character’s shoes. Each sense contributes to dynamic storytelling, offering different textures to the narrative fabric and making the story more relatable and memorable.

In a workshop filled with the musky scent of metal and wood, a woman with fiery red hair leans intently over a buzzing bench grinder. Sparks fly in a brilliant cascade, glowing fiercely against her protective glasses as she meticulously shapes a piece of metal. The whirring sound of the machine blends with the faint, rhythmic hammering of metal on metal from the background, telling tales of craftsmanship and labor. The air carries the warmth of friction and work, the tang of heated steel hanging heavy. Every surface is speckled with evidence of creation, from the fine metal filings that dust the tabletop to the worn handles of tools awaiting their turn. The tangible intensity of focus and the precision of her hands invoke a sense of being right there in the midst of creation, witnessing the transformation of raw materials into something purposeful.

The importance of sensory detail for reader immersion

Sensory detail isn’t just about the flourish of adjectives; it’s a critical tool for deepening reader immersion. These details can transform simple narration into a multi-dimensional experience. When you expertly weave sensory language into your writing, you promote a more personal and emotive response, enabling readers to become enveloped in your story in a way that goes beyond intellectual comprehension to a visceral engagement.

The Power of Visual Imagery

Crafting vivid visual details.

Your goal is to create a picture so real that readers feel like they could step right into it. This requires keen observation and the ability to articulate the subtleties of color, shape, and light. Consider how the time of day influences the way things look or how the mood of a scene is reflected in its visual elements. Craft your descriptions with specificity and unique details that breathe life into your scene’s canvas.

Avoiding overwritten visual descriptions

While visual details are vital, there’s an art to knowing when enough is enough. Ensure that your descriptions serve the story and its pacing. Overwriting can bog down your narrative and lose your reader’s interest. Aim for balance; use vivid language that enhances without overwhelming, allowing room for the reader’s imagination to co-create the scene.

The image vividly portrays an action hero in the midst of a daring rescue, using the five senses to immerse you in the scene's intensity and heroism.

Using similes and metaphors to enhance visual imagery

Similes and metaphors act as bridges, connecting the unfamiliar with the familiar and deepening the reader’s understanding. They can infuse your scenes with nuance and help readers see in new and unexpected ways. For example, saying “the sky blazed like a bruise” rather than simply “the sky was red” adds emotional weight and color, giving your reader a richer visual experience.

Incorporating Sound: Beyond Dialogue

Layering ambient sounds to create atmosphere.

The rustle of leaves, the babble of a stream, the hum of a city—these sounds form the auditory backdrop of your scene. Ambient noise can establish a setting, foreshadow events, or evoke mood. By layering these sounds, you cue your reader’s auditory imagination, helping them to tune into your story’s frequency.

Using onomatopoeia effectively

Words that imitate sounds, like ‘buzz’, ‘whisper’, or ‘clang’, can be powerful when used with precision. They add a level of authenticity and can make action more impactful. Imagine the difference between reading “the bee made a noise” and “the bee buzzed near her ear.” Onomatopoeia pulls readers into the immediacy of the moment.

Differentiating character voices and acoustic textures

Characters can be distinguished not just by what they say but by how they say it. A character’s voice might be described as velvety, grating, melodic, or raspy, thus adding to their depth. The acoustic textures of environments, such as the echo in a canyon or the muffled quality of a snow-covered landscape, also add to the sonic tapestry of your writing, giving it dimensionality and presence.

A female writer deeply engrossed in typing on an old typewriter in a dimly lit, tranquil room, surrounded by notes and drafts with emotional insights. Inspirational quotes about storytelling adorn the walls, and a serene night sky is visible through the window, emphasizing a reflective and intimate creative ambiance.

Textures and Touch: Conveying Tactile Experiences

Describing textures and physical sensations.

Think about the roughness of tree bark under fingertips, the plush warmth of a well-worn sweater, or the shocking cold of a snowflake on skin. Describing these tactile experiences helps readers connect physically with your story. It’s an intimate form of description that invites readers to feel alongside the characters.

Balancing tactile description without overloading the reader

As with all sensory writing, there’s a balance to be found in describing touch. You needn’t catalogue every sensation; instead, focus on those that add something vital to the scene or character development. Aim to be evocative rather than exhaustive, knowing that a few well-chosen tactile details can go a long way.

Integrating touch to enhance character interactions

Describing physical interactions between characters—whether a hand shake, a pat on the back, or an embrace—can reveal much about their relationships and inner worlds. The energy and emotion within these tactile exchanges offer a wealth of subtext and can significantly enhance your narrative.

A Whiff of Description: Utilizing Scent

Evoking memories and emotions with smell.

The sense of smell is incredibly evocative, linked closely to memory and emotion. A whiff of perfume might trigger a poignant memory for a character, or the stench of decay could foreshadow something dire. When you include olfactory details that tap into shared experiences, your writing resonates more deeply with your reader.

A writer in deep in thought at a desk by a window overlooking a scenic view, with a notebook filled with notes on character emotions and narrative arcs. Inspirational quotes about emotional storytelling adorn the walls, and a shelf holds books on creative writing and psychology. A steaming cup of coffee and a small potted plant are on the desk, enhancing the serene and inspiring environment.

Choosing the right moments for scent-related descriptions

Not every scene requires the inclusion of scent, but when used judiciously, a smell can add an invisible layer to your descriptions. Choose moments when a scent would naturally be noticed or when it can enhance the emotional or narrative stakes of a scene.

Maintaining subtlety with olfactory imagery

When it comes to scent, a light touch often works best. Overstated or incessant reference to odors can distract or overwhelm, so it’s important to weave these details into your writing with subtlety. Conveying a scent with simplicity can be enough to trigger the reader’s own sensory memory without requiring an elaborate description.

The Flavor of Words: Describing Taste

Using taste to reveal character traits.

What a character craves, savors, or despises can speak volumes about their personality, background, and current state of mind. Whether a protagonist has a penchant for spicy food that mirrors their fiery temperament or a villain who enjoys something unexpectedly sweet, taste can be an instrument to expose nuances of character.

Incorporating taste descriptions in food-related scenes

Scenes involving meals or other food-related experiences are perfect opportunities to engage your reader’s sense of taste. The joy found in a character’s favorite dish or a shared distaste for an unusual flavor can become points of connection or conflict within your narrative.

writer thoughtfully composing on a vintage typewriter at an antique desk in a serene workspace, surrounded by classic literature, handwritten notes, and inspirational quotes on emotional storytelling, with a tranquil landscape visible through the window, in a warmly lit, cozy room.

Connecting taste with other sensory descriptions

Taste is often linked with smell and sight; consider how the sight of a dish might evoke anticipation or how its aroma can preface the first bite. Engaging multiple senses when describing taste can provide a more complete and fulfilling sensory experience for your reader.

Strategic Use of Sensory Language

Maximizing emotional impact with selective sensory detail.

Selective sensory details can enhance the emotional impact of your writing. Picking just the right texture or sound can reinforce a character’s emotional state or the mood of a scene. Think of how a soft lullaby can soothe or the abruptness of a slammed door can jolt. Choose details that complement the emotional undertone you’re aiming to achieve.

Creating rhythm and pacing through sensory language

Sensory language can also influence the rhythm and pacing of your story. Longer, flowing descriptions can slow a moment down, allowing readers to linger, while quick, sharp details can accelerate pace, pushing the narrative forward. Weave sensory descriptions throughout your writing in a way that supports the desired tempo of your storytelling .

Knowing when to employ sensory description for emphasis

Use sensory details with purpose, reserving them for moments that require emphasis or that can greatly benefit from the added depth. Not every paragraph needs sensory embellishment. Learning when to employ these details, and when to hold back, is key to a balanced narrative.

Character Perspective and Sensory Detail

Aligning sensory information with character viewpoints.

Ensure that the sensory details you employ are in line with a character’s viewpoint. A seasoned chef will notice different flavors and scents than someone with less culinary experience. By aligning sensory information with character perspectives, you add authenticity and credibility to their narration.

The image represents the theme of the article "The Writer's Guide to Crafting Emotionally Resonant Stories." It captures the essence of a writer's creative space and process, emphasizing the focus on emotional storytelling.

Differentiating characters through sensory perception

Each character comes with a unique set of experiences and preferences that influence how they perceive the world. Use this to differentiate your characters, giving each a distinct sensory palette. This will not only add depth to their personalities but also variety to your writing.

Using sensory details to develop character backstory and motivation

A character’s reactions to sensory experiences can offer insights into their backstory and motivations. Perhaps a certain song always saddens a character due to a past event, or a taste reminds them of a goal they’re pursuing. Such details flesh out the tapestry of your character’s lives and can be powerful storytelling tools.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Sensory Writing

Steering clear of cliches and predictable descriptions.

Ensure that your sensory details are fresh and avoid leaning on cliches which can make your writing feel stale or uninspired. Instead of reaching for the familiar, take a moment to conceptualize how you can present a sensory image in a new, engaging way.

Balancing originality with clarity

While it’s important to be original in your descriptions, clarity should always be a priority. If a distinctive detail is too obscure or disconnected from common experience, it may confuse rather than illuminate. Aim for a balance where your creativity enhances the reader’s understanding, not hinders it.

Ensuring sensory details serve the narrative, not distract

Every sensory description should serve a purpose—advancing the plot, deepening characterization, setting the mood, or developing the setting. If a sensory detail doesn’t fulfill one of these roles, consider whether it might be a distraction and if so, whether it’s necessary at all.

A cozy room bathed in the warm glow of a table lamp creates an intimate setting for a couple sharing a love for music. They sit close on a plush sofa, a vintage record player between them, the soft crackle of a vinyl record starting to play a melodic tune that fills the room through their shared headphones. The scent of vanilla from a flickering candle mingles with the timeless fragrance of aged wood from the surrounding bookshelves, laden with records and mementos. They are lost in a moment of connection, their laughter barely audible over the music, feeling the rhythm through the vibrations of the turntable under their fingertips. The ambiance is one of comfort and nostalgia, inviting the senses to observe and sink into the cushions and savor the music and companionship.

Conclusion: The Synesthetic Symphony of Creative Writing

Recapitulating the significant points addressed.

In creative writing , sensory descriptions are your tools for creating an immersive world. Visual imagery paints the scene, sound infuses it with life, while touch brings intimacy. Smell invokes memory and emotion, whereas taste can reveal character depth. Strategic and varied use of sensory language can enhance emotional impact, control pacing, and emphasize narrative moments. Always ensure that sensory details align with character perspectives and support the overall story.

Encouraging writers to trust their instincts with sensory descriptions

Trust your instincts when it involves sensory details. Your experiences are unique, and tapping into how you perceive the world can lead to powerful writing. Remember that sensory details need to resonate with your readers, so keep them grounded in common understanding.

The ongoing process of learning and incorporating balanced sensory detail

The mastery of sensory descriptions is an ongoing process for any writer. Keep honing your skills, noticing the world around you, and practicing how you translate those experiences into your writing. Over time, you’ll develop an instinct for when and how to employ sensory language, creating a symphony that resonates long after the final page is turned.

Timothy R Carter

Sensory Richness: Crafting Vivid Scenes in Fiction

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The Gigantic List of Character Descriptions (70+ examples)

The vast majority of character descriptions are simply lazy.

They recycle typical ideas about hair, eye color, and build, giving you more information about the character’s fitting for a dress or suit than the type of information you need to know them intimately.

The first thing you should do when describing a character is to pick a category that isn’t so overused. Such as trying to describe:

Describing your character in an innovative way will help retain the reader’s interest. You want your reader to be asking questions about this character, to not only learn something about them but to create mystery. What made them like this? How long have they been this way? Is there someone currently after them or is this paranoia because of a past experience? Questions like these are what keeps the reader reading.

Not only physical descriptions are needed. Consider: “How is this person viewed by another character?” Do they seem dangerous, alluring, secretive, suspicious? The way another character views someone else gives insight about them as well. Are they attracted? Repulsed? Curious?

Another thing to take notice of is the type of person they are, despite their appearance.

How do they think?
What do they feel?
How do they view/react to certain situations compared to how others would?
What is their mental state?

Here is a list of examples of brilliant character descriptions to give you an idea and help you come up with your own:

3 Categories: Modern Literary, Literature, Popular

Modern Literary

1. vladimir nabokov, lolita.

” … Her skin glistening in the neon light coming from the paved court through the slits in the blind, her soot-black lashes matted, her grave gray eyes more vacant than ever.”

2. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

” … in the last years she continued to settle and began to shrink. Her mouth bowed forward and her brow sloped back, and her skull shone pink and speckled within a mere haze of hair, which hovered about her head like the remembered shape of an altered thing. She looked as if the nimbus of humanity were fading away and she were turning monkey. Tendrils grew from her eyebrows and coarse white hairs sprouted on her lip and chin. When she put on an old dress the bosom hung empty and the hem swept the floor. Old hats fell down over her eyes. Sometimes she put her hand over her mouth and laughed, her eyes closed and her shoulder shaking.”

3. Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

“Phyllida’s hair was where her power resided. It was expensively set into a smooth dome, like a band shell for the presentation of that long-running act, her face.”

4. China Miéville, This Census-Taker

“His hand was over his eyes. He looked like a failed soldier. Dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing.”

5. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“And then the hot air congealed in front of him, and out of it materialized a transparent man of most bizarre appearance. A small head with a jockey cap, a skimpy little checked jacket that was made out of air … The man was seven feet tall, but very narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and his face, please note, had a jeering look about it.”

6. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

“Mama BekwaTataba stood watching us—a little jet-black woman. Her elbows stuck out like wings, and a huge white enameled tub occupied the space above her head, somewhat miraculously holding steady while her head moved in quick jerks to the right and left.”

7. John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

“A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs. In the shadow under the green visor of the cap Ignatius J. Reilly’s supercilious blue and yellow eyes looked down upon the other people waiting under the clock at the D.H. Holmes department store, studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste in dress. Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person’s lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one’s soul.”

8. A.S. Byatt, Possession

“He was a compact, clearcut man, with precise features, a lot of very soft black hair, and thoughtful dark brown eyes. He had a look of wariness, which could change when he felt relaxed or happy, which was not often in these difficult days, into a smile of amused friendliness and pleasure which aroused feelings of warmth, and something more, in many women.”

9. Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“He did not look like anything special at all.”

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10. Henry Lawson, The Bush Girl

“ Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain, f ond heart that is ever more true F irm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain — She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.”

11. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“I am an invisible man.  No I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe:  Nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms.  I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - - and I might even be said to possess a mind.  I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me.”

12. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.”

13. Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel

“My brother Ben’s face, thought Eugene, is like a piece of slightly yellow ivory; his high white head is knotted fiercely by his old man’s scowl; his mouth is like a knife, his smile the flicker of light across a blade. His face is like a blade, and a knife, and a flicker of light: it is delicate and fierce, and scowls beautifully forever, and when he fastens his hard white fingers and his scowling eyes upon a thing he wants to fix, he sniffs with sharp and private concentration through his long, pointed nose…his hair shines like that of a young boy—it is crinkled and crisp as lettuce.”

14. Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books

“A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.”

15. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“[Miss Havisham] had shut out infinitely more; that, in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that, her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker…”

16. John Knowles, A Separate Peace

“For such and extraordinary athlete—even as a Lower Middler Phineas had been the best athlete in the school—he was not spectacularly built. He was my height—five feet eight and a half inches…He weighed a hundred and fifty pounds, a galling ten pounds more than I did, which flowed from his legs to torso around shoulders to arms and full strong neck in an uninterrupted, unemphatic unity of strength.”

17. Ambrose Bierce, Chickamauga

“-the dead body of a woman—the white face turned upward, the hands thrown out and clutched full of grass, the clothing deranged, the long dark hair in tangles and full of clotted blood. The greater part of the forehead was torn away, and from the jagged hole the brain protruded, overflowing the temple, a frothy mass of gray, crowned with clusters of crimson bubbles—the work of a shell.”

18. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“…your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

19. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn’t no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man’s white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes – just rags, that was all. He had one ankle resting on t’other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then. His hat was laying on the floor – an old black slouch with the top caved in, like a lid.”

20. William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness.”

21. Jane Austen, Persuasion

“Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character: vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth, and at fifty-four was still a very fine man. . . .”

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22. Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book

“When the old king saw this he foamed with rage, stared wildly about, flung himself on the ground and died.”

23. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe… Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy — a smile — not a smile — I remember it, but I can’t explain.”

24. Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.”

25. Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson

“He followed with his eyes her long slender figure as she threaded her way in and out of the crowd, sinuously, confidingly, producing a penny from one lad’s elbow, a threepenny-bit from between another’s neck and collar, half a crown from another’s hair, and always repeating in that flute-like voice of hers: “Well, this is rather queer!””

26. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“He had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say.”

27. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“Her skin was a rich black that would have peeled like a plum if snagged, but then no one would have thought of getting close enough to Mrs. Flowers to ruffle her dress, let alone snag her skin. She didn’t encourage familiarity. She wore gloves too. I don’t think I ever saw Mrs. Flowers laugh, but she smiled often. A slow widening of her thin black lips to show even, small white teeth, then the slow effortless closing. When she chose to smile on me, I always wanted to thank her.”

28. D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover

“But her will had left her. A strange weight was on her limbs. She was giving way. She was giving up…”

29. Henry James, The Aspern Papers

“Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not ‘dressed,’ and long fine hands which were–possibly–not clean.”

30. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni Book One: The Musician

“She is the spoiled sultana of the boards. To spoil her acting may be easy enough,—shall they spoil her nature? No, I think not. There, at home, she is still good and simple; and there, under the awning by the doorway,—there she still sits, divinely musing. How often, crook-trunked tree, she looks to thy green boughs; how often, like thee, in her dreams, and fancies, does she struggle for the light,—not the light of the stage-lamps.”

31. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

“Living among those white-faced women with their rosaries and copper crosses…”

32. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, as they told me, she still had something of her old ghastly bridal appearance; for, they had covered her to the throat with white cotton-wool, and as she lay with a white sheet loosely overlying that, the phantom air of something that had been and was changed, was still upon her.”

33. Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions

“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”

34. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“He was sunshine most always-I mean he made it seem like good weather.”

35. Hugh Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle

“For a long time he said nothing. He kept as still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing at all. When at last he began to speak, it sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly, in a dream.”

36. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”

37. Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

“He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing.”

38. Jamie McGuire, Beautiful Oblivion

“Her long platinum blond hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders, with a few black peekaboo strands. She wore a black minidress and combat boots.”

39. N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“His long, long hair wafted around him like black smoke, its tendrils curling and moving of their own volition. His cloak — or perhaps that was his hair too — shifted as if in an unfelt wind.”

40. M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“A creature–a frightfully, awful creature–was mere feet from her. Its eyes were enormous, the size of goose eggs and milky white. Its gray, slippery skin was stretched taut upon its face. Its mouth was wide and full of needle teeth. Its hands rested on the rock, hands that were webbed and huge with each finger ending in a sharp, curved nail. It was as tall as a human man, yet oddly shrunken and hunched.”

41. Amber Dawn, Sub Rosa

“When he did appear his eyes were as brown as I remembered, pupils flecked with gold like beach pebbles.”

42. Julia Stuart, The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

“His hair had been grown to counteract its unequivocal retreat from the top of his head, and was fashioned into a mean, frail ponytail that hung limply down his back. Blooms of acne highlighted his vampire-white skin.”

43. James Lee Burke, The Neon Rain

“His khaki sleeves were rolled over his sunburned arms, and he had the flat green eyes and heavy facial features of north Louisiana hill people. He smelled faintly of dried sweat, Red Man, and talcum powder.”

44. Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

“I vividly remembered the flat black color of his eyes the last time he glared at me – the color was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different color: a strange ocher, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone.”

45. Brian Malloy, Twelve Long Months

“Whith her hair dyed bright red, she looks like Ronald McDonald’s post-menopausal sister. Who has let herself go.” (This is one of my favorites, because I find it ridiculously funny)

46. Joan Johnston, No Longer A Stranger

“Actually, Reb had the same flawless complexion as her sister– except for the freckles. Her straight, boyishly cut hair fell onto her brow haphazardly and hid beautiful arched brows that framed her large, expressive eyes. She had a delicate, aquiline nose, but a stubborn mouth and chin.”

47. Brian Morton, Breakable You

“Without her glasses Vivian did look a little frightening. She had tight sinewy strappy muscles and a face that was hardened and almost brutal – a face that might have been chiseled by a sculptor who had fallen out of love with the idea of beauty.”

48. Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand

“I saw my Master had adorned himself in a thick tunic and beautiful dark blue doublet which I’d hardly noticed before. He wore soft sleek dark blue gloves over his hands, gloves which perfectly cleaved to his fingers, and legs were covered by thick soft cashmere stockings all the way to his beautiful pointed shoes.”

49. Becca Fitzpatrick, Black Ice

“His brown hair was cropped, and it showed off the striking s ymmetry of his face. With the sun at his back, shadows marked the depressions beneath his cheekbones. I couldn’t tell the color of his eyes, but I hoped they were brown…The guy had straight, sculptured shoulders that made me think swimmer …”

50. E.C. Sheedy, Killing Bliss

“He stood, which put him eye to eye with the dark-haired woman whose brilliant, burning gaze poured into his worthless soul like boiling tar, whose mouth frothed with fury–and whose hand now curled, knuckles white, around a steak knife.” (The author gives a lot of details about the characters emotions, but there is not one specific detail about neither of their appearances. Use this as an example of how physical appearances aren’t always the most important thing.)

51. James Lee Burke, The Neon Rain

“His wiry gray and black hair was dripping with sweat, and his face was the color and texture of old paper. He looked up at me from where he was seated on his bunk, and his eyes were hot and bright and moisture was beaded across his upper lip. He held a Camel cigarette between his yellowed fingers, and the floor around his feet was covered with cigarette butts.”

52. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“She has bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound.”

53. Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush

“He was abominable…and the most alluring, tortured soul I’d ever met.” (This isn’t describing him physically, but it is giving insight to how the main character views him)

54. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

“A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.”

55. Anne Rice, Violin

“I deliberately thought of him, my violinist, point by point, that with his long narrow nose and such deep-set eyes he might have been less seductive to someone else–perhaps. But then perhaps to no one. What a well-formed mouth he had, and how the narrow eyes, the detailed deepened lids gave him such a range of expression, to open his gaze wide, or sink in cunning street.”

56. Kevin Brooks, Lucas

“As I’ve already said, the memory of Lucas’s walk brings a smile to my face. It’s an incredibly vivid memory, and if I close my eyes I can see it now. An easygoing lope. Nice and steady. Not too fast and not too slow, Fast enough to get somewhere, but not too fast to miss anything. Bouncy, alert, resolute, without any concern and without vanity. A walk that both belonged to and was remote from everything around it.”

57. Anne Rice, Violin

“And she looked the way he had always hated her–dreamy and sloppy, and sweet, with glasses falling down, smoking a cigarette, with ashes on her coat, but full of love, her body heavy and shapeless with age.”

58. Kevin Brooks, Lucas

“As we drew closer, the figure became clearer, It was a young man, or a boy, dressed loosely in a drab green T-shirt and baggy green trousers. He had a green army jacket tied around his waist and a green canvas bag slung over his shoulder. The only non-green thing about him was the pair of scruffy black walking boots on his feet. Although he was on the small side, he wasn’t as slight as I first thought. He wasn’t exactly muscular, but he wasn’t weedy-looking either…there was an air of hidden strength about him, a graceful strength that showed in his balance, the way he held himself, the way he walked….”

59. Iris Johansen, The Face of Deception

“Kinky tousled curls, only a minimum of makeup, large brown eyes behind round wire-rimmed glasses. There was a world of character in that face, more than enough to make her fascinating-looking instead of just attractive.”

60. Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

“Brian Paulson was rake thin, with smooth hair the color of tin and a wet fleshy handshake…. His greeting was a nod and a blink, befitting someone who’d stepped out of the shadows only momentarily.”

61. Gena Showalter, The Darkest Night

“Pale hair fell in waves to his shoulders, framing a face mortal females considered a sensual feast. They didn’t know the man was actually a devil in angel’s skin. They should have, though. He practically glowed with irreverence, and there was an unholy gleam in his green eyes that proclaimed he would laugh in your face while cutting out your heat. Or laugh in your face while you cut out his heart.”

62. Sam Byers, Idiopathy

“Now here he was: sartorially, facially and interpersonally sharpened; every inch the beatific boffin.”

63. Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“As always, there was an all-American war hero look to him, coded in his tousled brown hair, his summer-narrowed hazel eyes, the straight nose that ancient Anglo-Saxons had graciously passed on to him. Everything about him suggested valor and power and a firm handshake.”

64. J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

“The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars.”

65. Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

66. Frank Herbert, Dune

“…a girl-child who appeared to be about four years old. She wore a black aba, the hood thrown back to reveal the attachments of a stillsuit hanging free at her throat. Her eyes were Fremen blue, staring out of a soft, round face. She appeared completely unafraid and there was a look to her stare that made the Baron feel uneasy for no reason he could explain.”

67. Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

“Ender did not see Peter as the beautiful ten-year-old boy that grown-ups saw, with dark, tousled hair and a face that could have belonged to Alexander the Great. Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or boredom, the dangerous moods that almost always led to pain.”

68. Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl

“He had his head in his hands, and his tie looked like it had been put on by an enemy, and was strangling him.”

69. Graham Joyce, Some Kind of Fairy Tale

“Peter was a gentle, red-haired bear of a man. Standing at six-four in his socks, he moved everywhere with a slight and nautical sway, but even though he was broad across the chest there was something centered and reassuring about him, like an old ship’s mast cut from a single timber.”

70. Brad Parks, The Girl Next Door

“…in addition to being fun, smart, and quick-witted—in a feisty way that always kept me honest—she’s quite easy to look at, with never-ending legs, toned arms, curly brown hair, and eyes that tease and smile and glint all at the same time.”

71. Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

“Sterling Mulkern was a florid, beefy man, the kind who carried weight like a weapon, not a liability. He had a shock of stiff white hair you could land a DC-10 on and a handshake that stopped just short of inducing paralysis.”

72. Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

“Lord Asriel was a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seemed to flash and glitter with savage laughter. It was a face to be dominated by, or to fight: never a face to patronize or pity. All his movements were large and perfectly balanced, like those of a wild animal, and when he appeared in a room like this, he seemed a wild animal held in a cage too small for it.”

73. Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“I thought she was so beautiful. I figured she was the kind of woman who could make buffalo walk on up to her and give up their lives. She wouldn’t have needed to hunt. Every time we went walking, birds would follow us around. Hell, tumbleweeds would follow us around.”

29 comments

woowwwwwwwwie

Love the compilation. Thank you for doing this

This is a great compilation! My students are working on writing characters right now, so I’m having them look through your list to see examples of a job well done 🙂 Thanks!

Thanks I’m using these for students to make character drawings from

This is really helpful ! Love it !

Do you have a way, where you could put the characters physical traits in this website?

Thank you for the awesome list. You should add this one; it’s from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: “Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, was a man of rugged countenance, that was never lightened by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.” There’s more after, but I thought this was a good description.

And this one: “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering, and somewhat broken voice: all these were points against him, but all of them together could not describe the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing, and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him.”

The quote that stood out to me the most was the quote from ‘The Census Taker’. That quote captured the characters feelings so well. The author was able to compare in self worth by saying it was as dirt, so much so that the dirt was written in his skin. I have never seen self worth and failure described as part of a person’s face.

Thank you. I echo Chris’s comment Wowwwwww and add a few!!!!

Wonderful! Reading these enabled me to rewrite the descriptions for my two leading characters.

Thank you for this, very helpful! I don’t know if this is really related, but I’m writing a story including a mean girl who bullies the main character (also a girl). I’m struggling to write what the mean girl uses to bully the main character – what I end up coming up with is way too mean or unreal, etc.

Blinded by tears, she could hear the haze of pink shout, “See, poor baby cries. Great actress, dear. Why do you waste your talent on us, here?”

great great any book for description of physical appearance in narrative

Great list. And I have one to add. It’s from Michael Moorcock, riding the new wave of British sci-fi back in the 1960s. He’s been a favorite of mine for decades. The passage is from “Elric of Melniboné:”

“It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone, resting on each arm of a seat which has been carved from a single, massive ruby.”

Thanks for this – very useful compilation for teaching – makes life so much easier! And helps in my writing, to look at expressions and word arrangements… I notice how some writers seem so good in visual description, and some others seem to be much better at character expressions..

wowzers!!! this is so cool!

I planned to just read a few, but I couldn’t stop reading. These are awesome! Thank you.

“Character Description” on The John Fox’s blog is a treasure trove of valuable tips and techniques for crafting compelling characters. The blog explores the art of painting vivid and multi-dimensional personas, adding depth to storytelling. Aspiring writers will find this guide indispensable for creating memorable characters that resonate with readers.

holy MOLY, thank you!

I liked them

wow thanks you have really helped me but can you put something to describe a character that is a tyrant please? that would really help

Absolutely remarkable. So very helpful in every since of the word.

OH HELLL YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

A killer set of fine examples! Thanks for compiling it!

Please, add sentences that can apply to more characters.

Love it but should be more single sentences

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

Learn how to:

Nail chapter endings
Surprise your reader with plot twists
Describe a character for the first time
Write a killer ending

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Picture Prompts

125 Picture Prompts for Creative and Narrative Writing

What story can these images tell?

Paper sits in a typewriter. The words “It was a dark story night” have already been typed.

By The Learning Network

For eight years, we at The Learning Network have been publishing short, accessible, image-driven prompts that invite students to do a variety of kinds of writing via our Picture Prompts column.

Each week, at least one of those prompts asks students: Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this image — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that it makes you think of.

Now we’re rounding up years of these storytelling prompts all in one place. Below you’ll find 125 photos, illustrations and GIFs from across The New York Times that you can use for both creative and personal writing. We have organized them by genre, but many overlap and intersect, so know that you can use them in any way you like.

Choose an image, write a story, and then follow the link in the caption to the original prompt to post your response or read what other students had to say. Many are still open for comment for teenagers 13 and up. And each links to a free Times article too.

We can’t wait to read the tales you spin! Don’t forget that you can respond to all of our Picture Prompts, as they publish, here .

Images by Category

Everyday life, mystery & suspense, relationships, science fiction, travel & adventure, unusual & unexpected, cat in a chair, happy puppy, resourceful raccoon, cows and cellos, people and penguins, opossum among shoes, on the subway, sunset by the water, endless conversation, falling into a hole, lounging around, sneaker collection, the concert, meadow in starlight.

Related Picture Prompt | Related Article

Public Selfies

Night circus, tarot cards, castle on a hill, security line, batman on a couch, reaching through the wall, beware of zombies, haunted house, familial frights, witches on the water, blindfolded, phone booth in the wilderness, shadow in the sky, a letter in the mail, hidden doorway.

Point of No Return

Darkened library, under the table, playing dominoes, looking back, a wave goodbye, out at dusk, conversation, walking away, alone and together, a new friend, heated conversation, up in a tree, hole in the ceiling, under the desk, at their computers, marching band, band practice, in the hallway, in the lunchroom, the red planet, tech gadgets, trapped inside, astronaut and spider, computer screen, special key, tethered in space, on the court, in the waves, city skateboarding.

Fishing in a Stream

Over the falls.

Under the Sea

Sledding in the mountains, cracked mirror, wilderness wayfaring, car and cactus, walking through town, tropical confinement, travel travails, roller coasters, atop the hill, climbing a ladder, under the ice, other selves.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

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Book News & Features

Ai is contentious among authors. so why are some feeding it their own writing.

Chloe Veltman

The vast majority of authors don't use artificial intelligence as part of their creative process — or at least won't admit to it.

Yet according to a recent poll from the writers' advocacy nonprofit The Authors Guild, 13% said they do use AI, for activities like brainstorming character ideas and creating outlines.

The technology is a vexed topic in the literary world. Many authors are concerned about the use of their copyrighted material in generative AI models. At the same time, some are actively using these technologies — even attempting to train AI models on their own works.

These experiments, though limited, are teaching their authors new things about creativity.

Best known as the author of technology and business-oriented non-fiction books like The Long Tail, lately Chris Anderson has been trying his hand at fiction. Anderson is working on his second novel, about drone warfare.

He says he wants to put generative AI technology to the test.

"I wanted to see whether in fact AI can do more than just help me organize my thoughts, but actually start injecting new thoughts," Anderson says.

Anderson says he fed parts of his first novel into an AI writing platform to help him write this new one. The system surprised him by moving his opening scene from a corporate meeting room to a karaoke bar.

Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon

"And I was like, you know? That could work!" Anderson says. "I ended up writing the scene myself. But the idea was the AI's."

Anderson says he didn't use a single actual word the AI platform generated. The sentences were grammatically correct, he says, but fell way short in terms of replicating his writing style. Although he admits to being disappointed, Anderson says ultimately he's OK with having to do some of the heavy lifting himself: "Maybe that's just the universe telling me that writing actually involves the act of writing."

Training an AI model to imitate style

It's very hard for off-the-shelf AI models like GPT and Claude to emulate contemporary literary authors' styles.

The authors NPR talked with say that's because these models are predominantly trained on content scraped from the Internet like news articles, Wikipedia entries and how-to manuals — standard, non-literary prose.

But some authors, like Sasha Stiles , say they have been able to make these systems suit their stylistic needs.

"There are moments where I do ask my machine collaborator to write something and then I use what's come out verbatim," Stiles says.

The poet and AI researcher says she wanted to make the off-the-shelf AI models she'd been experimenting with for years more responsive to her own poetic voice.

So she started customizing them by inputting her finished poems, drafts, and research notes.

"All with the intention to sort of mentor a bespoke poetic alter ego," Stiles says.

She has collaborated with this bespoke poetic alter ego on a variety of projects, including Technelegy (2021), a volume of poetry published by Black Spring Press; and " Repetae: Again, Again ," a multimedia poem created last year for luxury fashion brand Gucci.

Stiles says working with her AI persona has led her to ask questions about whether what she's doing is in fact poetic, and where the line falls between the human and the machine.

read it again… pic.twitter.com/sAs2xhdufD — Sasha Stiles | AI alter ego Technelegy ✍️🤖 (@sashastiles) November 28, 2023

"It's been really a provocative thing to be able to use these tools to create poetry," she says.

Potential issues come with these experiments

These types of experiments are also provocative in another way. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger says she's not opposed to authors training AI models on their own writing.

"If you're using AI to create derivative works of your own work, that is completely acceptable," Rasenberger says.

Thousands of authors urge AI companies to stop using work without permission

But building an AI system that responds fluently to user prompts requires vast amounts of training data. So the foundational AI models that underpin most of these investigations in literary style may contain copyrighted works.

Rasenberger pointed to the recent wave of lawsuits brought by authors alleging AI companies trained their models on unauthorized copies of articles and books.

"If the output does in fact contain other people's works, that creates real ethical concerns," she says. "Because that you should be getting permission for."

Circumventing ethical problems while being creative

Award-winning speculative fiction writer Ken Liu says he wanted to circumvent these ethical problems, while at the same time creating new aesthetic possibilities using AI.

So the former software engineer and lawyer attempted to train an AI model solely on his own output. He says he fed all of his short stories and novels into the system — and nothing else.

Liu says he knew this approach was doomed to fail.

That's because the entire life's work of any single writer simply doesn't contain enough words to produce a viable so-called large language model.

"I don't care how prolific you are," Liu says. "It's just not going to work."

Liu's AI system built only on his own writing produced predictable results.

"It barely generated any phrases, even," Liu says. "A lot of it was just gibberish."

Yet for Liu, that was the point. He put this gibberish to work in a short story. 50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know , published in Uncanny Magazine in 2020, is a meditation on what it means to be human from the perspective of a machine.

"Dinoted concentration crusch the dead gods," is an example of one line in Liu's story generated by his custom-built AI model. "A man reached the torch for something darker perified it seemed the billboding," is another.

Liu continues to experiment with AI. He says the technology shows promise, but is still very limited. If anything, he says, his experiments have reaffirmed why human art matters.

"So what is the point of experimenting with AIs?" Liu says. "The point for me really is about pushing the boundaries of what is art."

Audio and digital stories edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan .

large language model
mary rasenberger
chris anderson
sasha stiles
authors guild

The Guardian view on English lessons: make classrooms more creative again

The pleasures of reading and books have been swapped for phonics and grammar. It’s time for change

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Too much of what is valuable about studying English was lost in the educational reforms of the past 14 years. A sharp drop-off in the number of students in England taking the subject at A-level means fewer are taking English degrees . Teaching used to be a popular career choice for literature graduates, as Carol Atherton warmly describes in her new book, Reading Lessons . In it, Ms Atherton, a teacher in Lincolnshire, explains the pleasure she takes in teaching novels such as Jane Eyre that she first encountered herself as a teenage bookworm.

But lower numbers of English graduates mean teacher training courses are struggling to fill places for specialist secondary teaching jobs like hers, making entry less competitive. While trainee English teachers used to be plentiful, compared with subjects such as physics, now recruitment targets are routinely missed .

Changes to the curriculum made under the Conservatives are not the only reason. Chronic workforce shortages afflict much of the public sector, and figures show that schools are following hospitals and care homes in turning to recruitment abroad . A recent report from the National Foundation for Educational Research argued that to boost domestic applications and retention, teachers should be paid bonuses. This would compensate them for not being able to work from home.

But the fall in the popularity of English among over-16s is seen by many as a consequence of ill-thought-through changes, which imposed a model more suited to science and maths learning on to the quite different disciplines of language and literature. A highly prescriptive set of objectives pushes pupils to use ambitious vocabulary and punctuation. But this leaves limited room to encourage imagination, storytelling and interpretation – and the enjoyment in books that is crucial to stimulate a love of books. For Ms Atherton, it was the discovery of ambiguity in literature – the fact that the same texts can mean different things, depending who is reading them – that drew her in.

The researchers behind another book, Dominic Wyse and Charlotte Hacking, share her belief in the power of reading. In The Balancing Act , these authors set out a case that the version of phonics currently taught in primary schools all over the world is overly narrow. While many blame smartphones for the declining popularity of reading among young people, these experts say evidence shows that English lessons themselves bear a share of the blame. They believe a more flexible approach in classrooms, making more use of literature (initially children’s stories and novels) and less focused on grammar, would ultimately produce stronger talkers, readers and writers. The erosion of teachers’ autonomy should also be reversed, if enjoyment in language and ideas is to be strengthened.

There are many other challenges facing schools, which have not received enough support to recover fully from the pandemic. Problems around attendance and the system for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities will be pressing issues for the next government as they are for the current one. But education policy is not all about problem-solving. Schools remain lively places and innovation is essential if institutions and the people in them are to keep abreast of changes in the world. It is time to review the curriculum. When that happens, a fresh look at English, along with the arts subjects wrongly downgraded by the Conservatives , should be top of the list.

• This article was amended on 3 May 2024 to correct the spelling of Carol Atherton’s forename.

English and creative writing
Higher education
Conservatives
Teacher shortages
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The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus , a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus , releases May 13th.

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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Setting Description Entry: Bedrooms

October 4, 2008 by BECCA PUGLISI

bed, night stand, dresser, armoire, make-up table, desk and chair, picture frame, window, closet, mirror, bookshelf, clothes hamper, wastebasket, wall shelves, phone, lamp, computer, notepads, books, rug, curtains, shade/blinds…

female: frilly, flowery, lacy, soft, pink/purple/yellow, hearts, stuffed animals, make-up/hair products, perfume, decorative pillows, canopy bed, diary, fuzzy-topped pencils, nail polish, bracelets, bangles, earrings…

male: sports memorabilia, geometric, spartan, darker colors, rumpled bedsheets, clothes on the floor, messy, dusty, CD collection, posters of girls (beach babes, film stars, Army, Action movies), toy guns, airsoft guns, action figures…

Music blaring, murmur of TV or talking on the phone, laughter, tick of a clock, radio alarm, click of computer keys while IMing, cat or dog scratching to get in, trill of a cell phone, squeaky bed spring, whispering, outdoor sounds leaking in through…

Perfume, hairspray, nail polish, model glue, body spray, deodorant, clean linen, sweat, rotting food, bubblegum, fabric softener, dust, wet towels, a whiff of dinner cooking in the kitchen, a spicy cheese smell from an open bag…

Bubblegum, the bitter taste of hairspray, breath mints, peanut butter and jam sandwich on a plate, a banana, granola bar, sugary pop, water…

silky, clean sheets, the unwelcoming hardness of pressing the alarm button, cool, smooth desktop, fuzzy sweaters, itchy sweaters, slippery t shirts, rough Cotton jeans, cool walls, soft, sinkable bead, balling up paper, tossing it into a garbage bin…

Helpful hints:

–The words you choose can convey atmosphere and mood.

Example 1: When I could put it off no more, I tiptoed into Great Aunt BeeBee’s room. The floor was cold and gritty, dust and crumbs and who knows what else clinging to my bare feet. My only light came from a slit between the sagging curtains at the window, the feeble brightness barely enough for me to make out anything. I crept closer, trying to not gag on the smell of sweat and sickness. On the floor beside the bed I could just make out a twisted lump of blankets, but I couldn’t get up the courage to touch it. Please don’t be dead, I thought. I strained my ears for the sound of her rusty breath, and again remembered the sickening thump that had woken me…

–Similes and metaphors create strong imagery when used sparingly.

Example 1: (Simile) I followed on Anna’s heels, catching the bedroom door seconds before it could slam in my face. Enraged, I sucked in a deep breath and pushed the door wide. My words curdled into nothing at the mess greeting me–clothes, text books and muddy shoes lay across the floor in knotted clumps, pages from a teen magazine peppered the walls and CDs marched across the unmade bed like a ticker tape parade…

Think beyond what a character sees, and provide a sensory feast for readers

Setting is much more than just a backdrop, which is why choosing the right one and describing it well is so important. To help with this, we have expanded and integrated this thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers . Each entry has been enhanced to include possible sources of conflict , people commonly found in these locales , and setting-specific notes and tips , and the collection itself has been augmented to include a whopping 230 entries—all of which have been cross-referenced with our other thesauruses for easy searchability. So if you’re interested in seeing a free sample of this powerful Setting Thesaurus, head on over and register at One Stop.

On the other hand, if you prefer your references in book form, we’ve got you covered, too. The Urban Setting Thesaurus and The Rural Setting Thesaurus are available for purchase in digital and print copies. In addition to the entries, each book contains instructional front matter to help you maximize your settings. With advice on topics like making your setting do double duty and using figurative language to bring them to life, these books offer ample information to help you maximize your settings and write them effectively.

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers —a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Reader Interactions

April 16, 2015 at 8:35 pm

I’m not sure if I missed it or if its somewhere else on the website, but I’m looking for descriptive ideas for explaining the noises of a house at night. Specifically those, sort of, tinkling sounds of the materials expanding and contracting with the temperature. Any thoughts or directions on this would be hugely appreciated!!! 🙂

April 17, 2015 at 11:11 am

Hi, Elizabeth. We don’t have a thesaurus for noises, but you should be able to find many house sounds by looking at the different house-related entries in The Setting Thesaurus: attic, basement, bathroom, bedroom, etc. Each entry has a SOUNDS field; by looking through those entries, you might find the sounds that you’re looking for. Best of luck!

December 3, 2018 at 7:04 pm

i know its a little late but descriptives for what your looking for would be EX: hrough a window I could hear the risings and fallings of a conversation being held on a porch near the corner, chatting and yapping and playing and shrieking; a car passed on the street the creaking, the sea noises, and the night birds outside. or I was surrounded by the musty, oily, salty smell of the ship and the ocean, and realized how sharp one’s senses become in the dark. Every place has its own scent, a peculiar mixture of organic growth and human industry, of must, paint, wood and vermin.

July 19, 2014 at 10:50 pm

I hadn’t seen these entries yet! Now I REALLY want a setting set of books…. 😀

July 21, 2014 at 1:32 pm

You’re in luck, Kimbra! We’re working on the first draft of the Settings Thesaurus right now. No firm publication date yet, but we’ll place periodic updates here at the blog. You could also sign up for our free newsletter (link below), which will bring notifications about our upcoming books and other info right to your inbox :).

https://writershelpingwriters.net/newsletter-archive/

June 22, 2011 at 5:17 pm

It is possible we would, but if so it would be when (and if) we put the Setting Thesaurus into a book version. 🙂 So glad this is helpful to you! 🙂

June 22, 2011 at 11:33 am

I love your blog, thank you for pointing out the little things that go unobserved but are a great importance to each and everyone of our stories! By any chance would you be writing any of these for different time periods? Either way, thank you for the inspiration!

October 6, 2008 at 9:06 pm

Brilliant! This could actually double, somewhat, for a hotel room (with a few minor tweeks and add ons….smell…blech). Anyways, great stuff! Thanks for the inspiration!!

October 6, 2008 at 8:40 am

Boy do I know about bedrooms! My room was ALWAYS such a total and complete mess that my dad put a sign on my door that read, “Danger Disaster Area Three Feet Deep.” It remained on my door for many years.

October 5, 2008 at 11:10 am

*Gives some warm milk to PJ*

Thanks for coming over Rachel–we’re glad you found us!

October 5, 2008 at 12:02 am

Hey, wandered over from AW and poked around! These thesaurus posts are incredible. What a fantastic resource.

October 4, 2008 at 10:28 pm

I’m sleepy just reading it! Love this! Thanks!

October 4, 2008 at 11:46 am

I like the interior design mags too. I think it’s because I have a hard time imagining the potential of a room without some visual aids. I’m currently looking into remodling my kitchen, and my head reels at all the options and choices there are! Becca must be much better at this than I (and I wish she lived closer!) because she recently did a big reno in her new home.

Gutsywriter, one of the best things about this blog (and all online writing groups) is the ability to learn together. Becca and I have had such a great experience by pairing up and working through our writing woes, it was something we wanted to share on a bigger basis.

Each time we do an entry, we learn as we go, flexing the imaginative muscle to come up with descriptions and emotional actions that feel real.

October 4, 2008 at 10:49 am

Thanks for helping us again and again in our writing. It must take you a long time to put together your postings. A lesson plan in itself. I still have your emotional thesaurus on my laptop every time I rewrite a chapter and need more show and less tell.

October 4, 2008 at 9:35 am

This detail leaped out at me :

“the unwelcoming hardness of pressing the alarm button”

Sounds like a bedroom of the rich and famous. 🙂 I love looking at pictures of bedrooms in books on decorating and interior design and imagining how I’ll decorate my bedroom some day. Maybe I’ll have one of those low tables with padded tops as well.

IMAGES

Creative Writing
How to Write a Book Description That Sells: 8 Easy Tips
“Creative writing book” at Usborne Books at Home
Creative writing booklet: description
How to Write a Book Description That Sells: 8 Easy Tips
How to Write a Description for Your Book

VIDEO

Start your book “Creative writing for beginners
How to present poetry & shayari|shayari bolne ka andaz|शायरी, कविता बोलने का अंदाज़|kavita kese bole
Master the Art of Engaging Readers Visually
How to Choose the RIGHT Protagonist (Writing Advice)
The 3 Most Harmful Myths About Success for Writers
How It Works: Creative Writing Courses at The Novelry

COMMENTS

A Guide to Descriptive Writing
Writing description is a necessary skill for most writers. Whether we're writing an essay, a story, or a poem, we usually reach a point where we need to describe something. In fiction, we describe settings and characters. In poetry, we describe scenes, experiences, and emotions. In creative nonfiction, we describe reality.
How to Write a Book Description (Examples + Free Template)
Top 2 book description examples. 1. The Firm by John Grisham. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the master of legal thrillers, a page-turning classic of "suit-and-dagger suspense" (The New York Times): At the top of his class at Harvard Law, Mitch McDeere had his choice of the best firms in America.
How to Write a Book Description: 8 Steps with Examples
Step 3: Add the Problem or Conflict. Step 4: Raise the Stakes. Step 5: Give a Hint of the Plot. Step 6: Inject the Atmosphere. Step 7: Add Some Praise. Step 8: Close with a Bang. Conclusion. Write a Book. Mastering the art of writing a book description that captures interest is crucial for boosting sales and generating excitement around your book.
Secrets of Writing a Book Description that Sells (With Examples
Book Description Template. To make the process of writing a book description easier, we have added below a couple of templates that you can use for your book, instead of creating one from scratch. Whether you need it as a fiction or a non-fiction book, we've got you covered. 1. Non-Fiction Book Description Template.
How to Write a Great Book Description: Step-by-Step Guide
Use your first line to hook your readers. The first sentence of your book description is the most important sentence of your sales copy. Hook your reader by asking a question or by making a provocative statement to get a reader's attention and inspire them to continue reading. 3. Use short paragraphs to fill out the rest of the blurb.
Top 10 books about creative writing
4. Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle. The collected lectures of poet and professor Mary Ruefle present us with an erudite inquiry into some of the major aspects of a writer's mind and craft.
How to Write Vivid Descriptions
It is advice on how to break free of cliche approaches to painting, but it applies almost just as well to writing. The first step to vividly describing a place, person, or thing is to imagine it in your mind's eye. Alternately, if it actually exists you may prefer to look at it or a photograph directly. Either way, you'll start with some ...
The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing
Book description . This pioneering book introduces students to the practice and art of creative writing and creative reading. It offers a fresh, distinctive and beautifully written synthesis of the discipline. ... and why we teach and learn the arts of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. He looks at creative writing in performance; as ...
Writing Powerful Descriptions
Writing is an account of how people think. As a medium it's intrinsically empathic; it communicates patently human sensibilities. In order for a story to work, it needs to feel like real life, even when it's actually something quite different. The more detailed and rich your descriptions, the better your writing will approximate the human experience, thereby establishing a connection with ...
How to Use Descriptive Writing to Improve Your Story
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 4 min read. In fiction writing, authors bring characters to life and create imaginative settings through descriptive writing—using vivid details, figurative language, and sensory information to paint a picture for readers. Well-crafted descriptive writing draws readers into the story.
What is Creative Writing? A Key Piece of the Writer's Toolbox
5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing. Creative writing is marked by several defining characteristics, each working to create a distinct form of expression: 1. Imagination and Creativity:Creative writing is all about harnessing your creativity and imagination to create an engaging and compelling piece of work.
How to Write Vivid Descriptions to Capture Your Readers: 7 Writing Tips
4. Use the active voice. Concise, active words in your descriptive writing can make it more vivid. By starting with your subject, it infuses your sentences with action, creating activity and interest in your key message. Starting with the action can be exciting and invigorating to audiences, and keep them paying attention.
How to Write a Book Description: Tips from BookBub Editors
Below are my best tips on how to write a compelling description for your book so it has a great chance of drawing in readers. I've included screenshots of examples for reference — click on each image to read the book description in a new tab. 1. Keep your target audience and genre in mind. To attract the right readers to your book, you need ...
How to Write a Book Description That Sells: 8 Easy Tips
4. Tell enough about the plot to make people want to read the book. Introduce the main character and the problem of your story in a compelling way. Offer just enough hints about events in the story to pique reader interest without giving away any of the juicy details. 5.
Tips for Writing a Book Description
Keep it Short. When it comes to your book description's word count, you have a budget of approximately 250 words to play with—and that's the upper limit. ( Amazon recommends keeping your blurb to 150 words and caps you at 4,000 characters or around 500 words.) After writing 100,000+ words, 250 seems like nothing.
The 20+ Best Books on Creative Writing
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin - Many writers consider this to be their bible on craft and storytelling. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg - A favorite of many writers, this book takes an almost spiritual approach to the art, craft, and experience of writing.
How To Write Descriptions And Create A Sense Of Place
Set the scene early on - then nudge. It may sound obvious but plenty of writers launch out into a scene without giving us any descriptive material to place and anchor the action. Sure, a page or so into the scene, they may start to add details to it - but by that point it's too late. They've already lost the reader.
Master List of Physical Description for Writers
For all the words about describing facial features, I'm focusing more on physical descriptions rather than emotional expressions, though there's a little crossover! You can also check out my long list of facial expressions. large. small. narrow. sharp. squinty. round. wide-set.
Sensory Descriptions in Creative Writing
In "Balancing Sensory Descriptions in Creative Writing," writers are guided on employing the five senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell—to create vivid and immersive narratives. Sensory details are compared to a painter's palette, vital for reader engagement, providing depth and emotional connection. Writers learn to weave this sensory tapestry with subtlety, ensuring descriptions ...
The Gigantic List of Character Descriptions (70+ examples)
23. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. "He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe….
Setting Description Entry: Forest
Setting is much more than just a backdrop, which is why choosing the right one and describing it well is so important. To help with this, we have expanded and integrated this thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers.Each entry has been enhanced to include possible sources of conflict, people commonly found in these locales, and setting-specific notes and tips, and the ...
125 Picture Prompts for Creative and Narrative Writing
Now we're rounding up years of these storytelling prompts all in one place. Below you'll find 125 photos, illustrations and GIFs from across The New York Times that you can use for both ...
Authors feed their own literary works into AI models for the sake of
Moor Studio/Getty Images. The vast majority of authors don't use artificial intelligence as part of their creative process — or at least won't admit to it. Yet according to a recent poll from ...
The Guardian view on English lessons: make classrooms more creative
The researchers behind another book, Dominic Wyse and Charlotte Hacking, share her belief in the power of reading. In The Balancing Act, these authors set out a case that the version of phonics currently taught in primary schools all over the world is overly narrow.While many blame smartphones for the declining popularity of reading among young people, these experts say evidence shows that ...
Setting Description Entry: Bedrooms
Setting is much more than just a backdrop, which is why choosing the right one and describing it well is so important. To help with this, we have expanded and integrated this thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers.Each entry has been enhanced to include possible sources of conflict, people commonly found in these locales, and setting-specific notes and tips, and the ...
Reza Aslan on writing "A Kids Book about Israel & Palestine"
About the author: Reza Aslan is a renowned writer, commentator, professor, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions. A recipient of the prestigious James Joyce award, Aslan is the author of three internationally best-selling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.