When it comes to a story, description is more important than dialogue. You need to describe the settings, characters, and actions in enough detail that the reader can picture what is happening.
It's important to describe settings that way your reader can get an idea of where and when your story is taking place. Details about the time of year and the time of day as well as the place where the action is happening can help your reader picture the setting.
All examples in this chapter are from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.
This is a description of the Professor's house in the first chapter.
"It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures, and there they found a suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books -- most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead bluebottle on the window-sill."
You need to give a good description of your characters that way your reader can picture them and relate to them better. You should describe both their physical appearance and also their character / the way they act. By describing the way they do things and interact with other characters can help give a better idea of what kind of person they are and it becomes more interesting than just telling your reader what they're like.
This example is also from the first chapter. It's the description of Mr. Tumnus.
"He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat's (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat's hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck, and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella; in the other arm he carried several brown-paper parcels. What with the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all his parcels."
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Ten Ways to Improve Your Story Writing
RandomI don't know how many stories I have come across that have had a really good plot but have been nearly impossible to read. This book is a list of ten different things that can improve your writing. Most of them have to do with grammar.
