Day 08 – Pick a Setting, Describe it Twice

Today’s mini-task is designed to give your descriptive skills a workout.

When you write fiction, you’re operating on two levels at once. Think of them as text and subtext. The “text” of a scene might be, say, a job interview. The “subtext,” however, is something else again. Examples:

• Two people become lifelong enemies.

• Something’s not right about this company

• Something’s not right about the job applicant

Setting is a particularly powerful way to convey subtext. Your description should be accurate and evocative. But it should also do more than that: it should convey, without stating it, subtext.

Here’s your mini-task:
Pick a setting. Where are you now? Look around. This will do.

Describe it in a single paragraph. Make it read as if you (that is, “you” the character) were a condemned criminal, and your execution was set to take place in an hour.

Then do it again, but this time, write it as if you (as a different character), were in love for the first time.

Don’t mention the given or make any direct reference to it. Simply use words, phrases, and metaphors that convey it as subtext.

5 minutes for each paragraph. GO.

Note: You can access all previous mini-tasks at Write a Better Novel. Just mouse over the “15 Day Countdown to NaNoWriMo” navigation tab at the top right of any page.