The Writing Company · The Mayor

Write to describe

1 Learn Start here

2 Assess Take the quiz

3 Practice Try it out

4 Create Make your own

★ Certified Earn your badge

Step 1 · Pick a prompt

Pick one prompt. Choose a place with something under its surface, and then leave the surface alone.

Step 2 · Plan it

Plan first. Fill in the five parts of the Path in short notes. A good path on paper is a scene the reader can walk.

Name the place (my scene, in one sentence)

Pick one path, and hold it

Let the things act (at every stop, something does something)

My restraint (the words I will cut, so the details can speak)

The last detail (and nothing after it)

Step 3 · Pick one goal

One goal, chosen before you write, beats ten wishes after. Pick exactly one.

After you write, look for the proof in your own sentences.

Step 4 · Write your description

Hold one path, let the things act, cut what the nouns can carry, and end without explaining.

Action verbs you can borrow: ticksholdsshinessettleshumsstands

Step 5 · Sum it up

One more thing, once you have written. One sentence: what should the reader understand when they finish, even though you never wrote it? If your description and your sentence disagree, believe the sentence.

Step 6 · Before you turn it in

Read your description once, out loud if you can. Then check.

My first sentence names the place.
I picked one path and held it to the end.
The things in my scene do the acting; nothing is announced.
I cut every adjective whose work the noun could do alone.
One detail carries what I never say.
I stayed out of the scene, so the reader watches the place, not me.
My last sentence lands, and nothing explains it afterward.

← Back to Practice