How to use descriptive detail in your writing

A few weeks ago, I put out a note that went viral. It really seemed to strike a chord with writers and to date has over 1,000 likes! This is the note:

“I’m a literary agent and one of the most common problems I see in opening pages is a lack of descriptive detail.

You have the dialogue

You have the inciting incident

You have the characters

Things happen

But I don’t know what the scene should look like in my head - there’s nothing in my mind’s eye. I don’t know what the characters can hear or smell. I don’t know what season it is.

Adding evocative descriptive details is one of the most powerful ways you can draw in a reader, and a literary agent.”

And it got me thinking: I haven’t written about the importance of adding descriptive detail to your writing! I’ve written about showing rather than telling, about adding detail to add credibility to your world-building, establishing character through details and adding detail to your opening paragraphs, but I haven’t written about descriptive detail as a general concept in fiction writing.

The responses to that note also taught me some valuable lessons:

• That some people out there have been told to cut the descriptive details and focus on everything else

• That some people have aphantasia, which means they aren’t able to visualise a picture in their mind’s eye

I knew both these points already but it was helpful having so many people confirm these to be true. Because it helps me to understand why so many writers really struggle to incorporate descriptive detail in their writing.

In my opinion (and it is just an opinion), descriptive detail is one of the most important aspects of fiction writing, and narrative non-fiction writing, because it is what helps to elevate your writing above what many others are doing at the moment. And when you want to catch the eye of a literary agent, or be remembered by your readers, it’s an aspect that needs just as much thought and focus as plot, structure, pacing and characterisation.

My responses to my note also taught me a third point: that many authors thought that I was suggesting descriptive detail trumps all the other aspects of writing. But that simply isn’t true. The more I read and edit over the years, the more I come to understand that writing is about a balance of elements. You need all the components (plot, structure, pacing, characterisation and descriptive detail, among others) for the book to work.

Note that this article is more for the underwriters than the overwriters. If you tend to include too much description, you will need to get out your red pen and trim some of it back, particularly if it gets in the way of the other elements.

Descriptive detail is an aspect of writing that enhances reader engagement by enabling the reader to both visualise the story as it is happening and also feel what is happening. This distinction is important as those people with aphantasia, I am reliably told, feel and sense the story rather than seeing it in their mind’s eye.

Effective descriptive detail enhances and deepens the reading experience and also allows the book to feel more authentic and immersive.