Home
>
Writing
>
How To Filter Description Through Your Characters

How To Filter Description Through Your Characters

How do you describe a scene without slowing down the pace of your novel? What do you include? What do you leave out? Here's a neat trick: use your own experiences as a guide.

When we encounter a new setting or new experience, all our senses are on the alert. While we may not be conscious of it, we are using filtering that experience in our own unique ways. We react to what is happening according to the following:

1. Our Prior Experiences

Remember the scene in "Pretty Woman" where the heroine has her first experience of the Opera? Her reaction was vastly different to that of someone who might take such outings for granted - someone who had been accustomed to going to the Opera all her life. If you are poor, you tend to take for granted humble surroundings; but you notice the trappings of the rich. You may envy the rich, or you may feel that this is a lifestyle that is totally foreign to you, and you prefer a simpler life. If you are used to speaking in one language, you feel all at sea if you are surrounded by foreigners.

Make sure you show your character's reactions in a way that fits with her prior experiences.

2. How Things Affect Our Senses

We all experience the world through our five senses, but a blind man will rely on other senses more than those who have good eyesight. The situation will determine which sense comes to the fore with your viewpoint character. If we're in a bakery, we tend to notice the delicious SMELLS before anything else. If we're trudging home in the rain, cold and wet, we notice the way things FEEL against our skin - cold, clammy, wet. If we're in a dark room we rely on what we hear. When you are showing your character's reactions, don't automatically describe what he or she SEES. Think about the situation, and decide whether one of the other senses might be more appropriate.

3. Imagine Yourself In That Situation

To write effectively, try to BECOME the viewpoint character. Imagine what it would be like for you to experience the same thing. Which of your senses would be paramount? What would YOU notice? How would your prior experiences affect the way you react?

4. Show Only What is Important to the Viewpoint Character

Many beginning writers fall into the trap of trying to describe everything. These often become the sections that readers skip over, because they don't want to sit down and read pages of lyrical description about the countryside, or about the mansion that the heroine finds herself in. Nor do they want to read a laundry-list of what a character might see in a room.

Show the character in action. Imagine yourself looking out through the character's eyes, and show ONLY WHAT IS RELEVANT. As one writing teacher I know puts it, "when you're jumping a fence to run from the bad guys, you don't have time to admire the sunset."

Bottom line? FILTER EVERYTHING THROUGH CHARACTER. Stick to that basic rule and you won't go too far wrong.

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers' tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/

recurring cleaning service Mundelein ..

In The News:

New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.

Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.

iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.

FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.

Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.

Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.

Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.

Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.

Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.

New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.

FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.

New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

OpenTable now uses AI to track your dining habits and share insights with restaurants. Learn what data they collect and how to protect your privacy.

Google's discontinued Nest thermostats still secretly upload home data to company servers despite losing smart features, raising serious privacy concerns.

New Android malware NGate steals NFC payment codes in real-time, allowing criminals to withdraw cash from ATMs without your card. Learn protection tips.

How To Filter Description Through Your Characters

Writing