~Writing Tips~

#6: Literary Feung Shui

Hey all, it's PrussiaFlute. And today I'm gonna be explaining about something that some writers are afraid to do: decorate their literary spaces.

What do I mean by this statement which draws to mind images of a show from HGTV or DIY? It's very simple.

Interior or exterior decorating of a scene in whatever story you're reading or writing is important. It gives you a sense of actually being there.

Now, what some writers do, and this is what someone told me and made me a tad bit worried about my attention to detail in my own works, is that they add way too much detail. Explains every single color of every single piece of furniture in a simple room inside to discussing the philosophical reasons of one single solitary cloud moving through the sky for five minutes flat.

Being completely honest with you guys and with myself here: unless I'm reading William Wordsworth poems, I don't wanna know about the deep inner thoughts of nature, or hear about why a couches' color makes it a seat of champions or cowards, etc. for whole paragraphs on end.

Give brief descriptions of your surroundings. And, depending on the mood, focus on one certain element in a space.

Example: you're writing a scene that is meant to become more dark and dreary as it goes along, so a possible element to focus on would be the lighting in a space. Or, if you're trying to make a certain character seem intimidating, while still using the element of light, make it to where the light is at an angle to where said character is given the appearance of deep sunken eyes and thin features; almost like you can see the symbol of death written all over their face: a skull.

Another example, this time with objects, would work just so: say your character is coming back to a spot/space they haven't been to in many years; a way of giving a feel of possible nostalgia is with the element of color, possibly- turn the "once bright and ticking grandfather clock" into an "old silent shriveled up heart in the middle of the room", and say they relate certain lost loved ones to certain seats in the room- "the maroon love seat, where my love once spent most of her days, now lays nearly black with dust- the dust of forgotten memories. Of death."

Straight skinny of this part: don't be afraid of manipulating your surroundings in your writing. It gives the scene and characters life, if you allow it. And you don't need a complicated guide to tell you what pieces need to be at what angles, or in what positions at certain times of day.