Writing landscape descriptions

rocketshipready

So I recently got back into creative writing (nothing serious, just for fun) after a loooooooooong hiatus, and have been running into some trouble with my prose. A few story ideas I have rely heavily on the landscape the story is set in (a forest glade, for instance) and the characters' interactions with it, and I would like to give really strong, detailed descriptions of these landscapes. I'm having trouble coming up with something that doesn't sound overly flowery, though. I'm coming up with a good mental picture of what I want to write about, but I guess I'm just having trouble getting it down on paper without sounding ridiculous.

Does anyone know of any good example pieces I could read to get a feel for this type of writing? I'm a big Cormac McCarthy fan, and his descriptions of the desert/plains/mountains in Blood Meridian are fantastic, so, stuff like that. I should mention I'm not looking to write 50-page stories here (or heck, even 10-page stories), and I'm not looking to describe every rock or blade of grass, but I'd like to be set a nice scene.

Thanks for any help!

Wank

I don't know about examples, but yeah, don't describe every rock and blade. Pick a few encapsulating images and use them as shortcuts to get the reader imagining everything else. You could post an example of your own stuff and people could probably show you how to knock it down?

ruzkin

My best advice when doing any sort of scene setting is that the scene doesn't matter. The way the characters interact with the scene matters. In a forest, nobody cares about the wind. They care about the wind on your protagonists cheeks. They don't give a shit about grass. They want to know about how the grass feels between the MC's toes. A marketplace full of bustling shoppers is trite. A character pushing through those jostling shoppers has impact. And so on, and so on.

Choose a few important images or aspects of the scene. Figure out how these affect the characters within the scene. Show those moments of interaction, and skip the rest.

pterabite

ruzkin wrote: »

My best advice when doing any sort of scene setting is that the scene doesn't matter. The way the characters interact with the scene matters. In a forest, nobody cares about the wind. They care about the wind on your protagonists cheeks. They don't give a shit about grass. They want to know about how the grass feels between the MC's toes. A marketplace full of bustling shoppers is trite. A character pushing through those jostling shoppers has impact. And so on, and so on.

Choose a few important images or aspects of the scene. Figure out how these affect the characters within the scene. Show those moments of interaction, and skip the rest.

Yes exactly. In fact most of your descriptive lines should be like this. Your character isn't crying, they're feeling the tears on their cheeks, and so on.

Describing the light can also help sum things up a lot, I find. Describing the dull sky/dusty air/soft dawn light on the grass or whatever can set the tone of the scene in far fewer words than describing a whole landscape.

RamseyH

I find it helpful to actually put myself in a similar setting. Go on a hike or a long walk and take note of what you experience, what you notice, what jumps out at you. Try to imagine yourself in your protagonist's shoes and think like he/she thinks. Use all of your senses, not just your eyes. What do the rocks feel like under your shoes? Would your protagonist be wearing good shoes, or feel every stone? Is he/she well dressed or exposed to the elements? Stuff like that.

rocketshipready

Great suggestions all around! Ramsey, I actually had a place in mind when writing this particular scene, so that's a great suggestion. Thanks, everyone!

Carole_Vaudry

I think one important thing with scenery is giving a sense of geography, of where every thing are, without bogging down the description. Your reader should be able to draw a broad outline of where major landmarks are just from the text.