requested by: ImberLapis and Stormlocke (lumping yours here because it's similar)

note: this isn't supposed to be the "correct" way of doing things! I'm nowhere near being able to call what I do the correct way, so this is merely a book on how I do things :-)

So. Descriptions. It's something I truthfully struggle with a lot as well, but I'll try my best to share my way of doing it.

Descriptions, to me, is one of the fundamentals of writing a good story. If you have little to no description, then the story will seem flat and won't be as captivating. 

Those who read my works will know that I have two styles of writing descriptions: the style I use in my novels and the more flow-y poetic style I use for one-shots and stuff. I'm going to be covering both.

tip 1: "show, don't tell" ?

A lot of people use this rule, but as for me, I think that it can be bent a bit. Of course, showing instead of telling is good because it helps you expand on something and go into the details through someone's actions or words, but there are some things that are better off bluntly said. You don't need to spend five lines describing something as simple as someone holding a handbag.

Keep in mind that you should still be "showing" most of the time, because it'll get boring if your story always sounds something like: She was happy. She carried a bag by her side. Home was nearby, and she was going to prepare lunch for her children. 

tip 2: try not to use adverbs

This might seem weird, but I learnt this last year from the seminar I attended. One of the professional writers there told us to edit out as many adverbs as possible from the writing we did. 

Adverbs are often used as a "shortcut" to describe something. I mean, why put in the effort to write something like "...but why?" Her voice was soft, unsure, and if he wasn't straining to hear her, the words would have been swallowed up by the wind when you can just say "...but why?" she asked softly.

I think you should be able to tell which one has more impact. Simply put, adverbs are convenient, but using many of them will trap your potential to expand on descriptions. I tend to give myself a limit before I use an adverb (about 10 paragraphs or so).

tip 3: follow a rhythm when writing

Okay, this tip seems weird, but it's the main factor behind my "aesthetic" writing. (Pfft no but people say that so I'll go with that)

My writing used to just be clunks of words, and it was pretty painful to read. But things happened, and I hopped on AO3 where everyone was using poetic writing like there was no tomorrow and I noticed something common amongst all my favourite one-shots--

They had a certain rhythm to them.

I don't know if it's the same for you, but I find that structuring the length of your sentences, the number of verbs and adjectives you use, varying your sentence type and throwing in things here and there all affects your story rhythm. If done correctly, you can make your writing sound pretty, poetic and "aesthetic", which I'm trying to work on.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helped you! If you'd like me to post a chapter regarding how I tackle another part of writing, please leave a comment in the requests chapter :D

a/n: phew it's hard writing something non-story in proper english lmAo :""")