Have you ever read any piece of writing and you felt like you pretty much had a visual idea of what was being talked about, even without seeing the exact item being alluded to in the piece of writing? Or better still, you may have read a writer’s content that left you feeling something, probably the way the writer intended his or her audience to feel; maybe happy, sad, or angry. Now that’s the power of descriptive writing. It is an exciting writing tool that offers authors endless opportunities to make their writing amazing. As an author, it is best for you to master the use of descriptive writing, especially now that it can be used in both the fiction and nonfiction genres. Descriptive writing has a wide range of applications; it can be used in biographies, journals, poetry, nature writing - the list is endless.

As a writer or content producer, what would be your answer to a question like, “What do you know about descriptive writing?” Or perhaps to be more precise, do you know the purpose of descriptive writing? Descriptive writing is meant to paint a picture or pictures in the reader’s mind using details or a variety of literary devices. What would be greater than creating a great story? It definitely would be allowing your reader to fully experience your story by making it appeal to his or her five senses. Do you know how to do that? Don’t worry, I’ll show you a few techniques that will set you on the track to be outstanding in descriptive writing. First, let’s take a look at the features of descriptive writing.

Features of descriptive writing

Orderliness

The author should ensure that his or her thoughts are aligned in chronological order. For instance, when introducing a character, describe how they look before delving into their thoughts and feelings.

Conciseness of words

In descriptive writing, the nouns, adjectives, and verbs should be concise; this makes the idea or item being implied be more clearly and strongly conveyed.

Colorful

Descriptive writing is very colorful. The author should ensure they use words that enhance color in the reader’s mind. For instance, rather than just describing a character in your story, you can include details about the weather, the setting of the environment, the time of the day, among others.

Techniques for descriptive writing

Use descriptive words

A descriptive word gives details and more information about an idea or item. Such information can be about the color, size shape, texture, and more about an item. Adjectives are the most common types of descriptive words. Instead of saying, “He had a dog.” You can take it a notch higher and say, “He had a big brown bulldog.” That paints a picture of the dog in your reader’s mind.

Use figurative language

The use of figurative language will help a great deal to make your writing descriptive. Figurative language comprises metaphors and similies. Instead of saying, “She is a hard girl.” You can say, “The girl has a heart of stone.”

Align your ideas in order

Present your ideas in order. This will increase the readability of your work and make the reader easily connect with your ideas. For instance, talk about your character’s environment, then introduce your character’s thoughts about the same.

Sources

https://www.skillshare.com/blog/the-5-types-of-writing-styles-with-examples
www.grammarly.com/blog/types-of-writing/