I finally finished Jane Yolen’s wonderful book Take Joy yesterday. It was so nice to meander through her ideas on writing and soak them in. One thing she talked about toward the end of the book was landscape and how all-too-often it’s an aspect of writing that gets neglected. “We are unpracticed in the art of looking. Nobody has taught us to see,” she says.
Because overly descriptive language is out of style these days, writers have become somewhat afraid of describing the setting in books. You don’t want to distract from the action of your story by telling us about every aspect of the landscape. But having no sense of place often makes stories feel incomplete, like they’re happening in mid-air. Yolen isn’t advocating focusing on landscape just for the sake of it; she wants writers to use it as a way of advancing the story.
Landscape can be metaphor, can be a parallel to the characters’ lives, can become central to the action, can even be a character in itself.
The setting can mirror the characters and the action of the story, and it can add to the story as well. The landscape can create barriers that your characters have to work around, or it can force your characters to interact. If, for example, there’s only one path that leads away from a village, a character having to escape from that village is bound to have an interesting journey.
This brings up something else that Yolen says about landscapes; they have to be real:
The trick is that the details of the landscape must be precise. It is as if the author has been there, not just a visitor but a native of the place.
I love this idea of really knowing a place before you’re able to write about it. You have to see it and live in it for a while before you can write about it convincingly. Once you know the place you’re writing about, you won’t have to paint it for us with pages of description. It will just become part of your story.
- Categories: Craft, Resources, Writing Rants
This is actually one of my favorite parts of writing. I love picking out a detail, the shape of a leaf, or the smell of a cooking fire, to bring the reader (hopefully) into the story body-and-soul.
I go back and forth about description. Sometimes I love it and sometimes it’s a struggle. But like you said, Amber, it can be so rewarding to find the write words to describe that well-chosen detail.
it’s so true I’m sometimes afraid to describe because I’m afraid to do it badly. But now I at least think about my descriptions and those I read when I’m critiquing.
I’ve certainly felt that fear of badly describing landscape. When description works it can be so amazing. But if it’s off, it can just fall flat. I guess that’s one of the reasons why really getting to know the world you’re writing about is so important, because it can help you convey the setting in a way that feels believable.
Anna, I think you’re right about writers afraid to describe setting. But I also agree that it must propel the plot forward. Depending on the book, it can be like another character–and it must come alive for the reader just like the characters do. Thanks for this post!