Description | A. W. Downer

Pretty Sentence

Posted on January 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

In revision, I came across a pretty sentence that unfortunately alliterates. I love the imagery of this sentence: Black smoke from its stacks stained the cerulean sky. This isn’t a poem, so alliteration–especially accidental–isn’t a good idea. I really wanted to keep that imagery. Here’s how I revised it: Black smoke from its chimneys stained […]

Too Focused

Posted on July 21, 2014 Leave a Comment

Okay, okay, I think I know what part of the problem is. I’m terrible at description. That’s the main glaring problem with highschool draft of Epic Novel. It’s all very terse, very telly, all action and dialogue. In my current draft, I have really focused on description. Perhaps too much. One compliment I always get […]

Better Writer

Posted on July 14, 2014 Leave a Comment

Argh! Is it possible that I was a better when I was 17 pre-MFA—pre-any-kind-of-creative-writing-class-ever? I keep looking back at my highschool draft of the Epic Novel. Yes, in many ways it was terrible. Yet, the characters seemed more real, more authentic. They certainly seem more like teenagers, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me. What really […]

They’re Forbidden for a Reason

Posted on October 21, 2013 Leave a Comment

At the conference, the agent who critiqued my manuscript told me to scrap the prologue (she was very nice about it). :::kicks feet::: Yes, I knew prologues were forbidden when I wrote it . . . My problem isn’t so much prologues. It’s world-building. How on earth do I convey all the necessary world-building information […]

Operation: Cut the Internal Monologue

Posted on June 29, 2012 1 Comment

Not too long ago, a friend of mine commented on the differences between men and women (these are generalizations, not rules). Many women–I think all the women I’ve ever known–are constantly thinking of something. Personally, I have a constant internal monologue going on (on a side note, its usually in third person: “She wondered what […]

Physical Manifestations of Emotion

Posted on June 22, 2012 Leave a Comment

I have known for a couple of years now that I have difficulty including sensory detail in my stories. I experience the world through thoughts and thought processes. I don’t necessarily remember how things smell or taste or sound–I remember specific images, dates, and numerical or logical details. I remember what I thought at the […]