As I try to improve my technical writing skills, I've noticed my describing skills are pretty lacking. So, here is a list of description exercises.
Setting Description
Pick a setting and describe it in a way that evokes a positive emotion, then describe the same setting negatively.
Pick a setting and try to describe it by using all of your senses.
Find a setting you've written before and write 500 words of pure description on it.
Describe a tree from the point of view of a character that's feeling a strong emotion, whether they're depressed, frustrated, or excited.
Character Description
Pick one of your characters and write a 500 word description of them.
Write a 500 word description on how your character feels about different people.
Pick 3 different characters and write 200 word descriptions for each of their voices.
Write a 500 word description about how your character looks at different people.
I craved desperately some great savage joy, no matter how immense the suffering that might ensue…
Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human
Hair all tangled this morning - Shall I smooth it With spring rain Dripping form the jet-black Wings of swallows?
- Yosano Akiko, “Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from Midaregami”
『𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚛 𝚞𝚗𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜.
𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚝𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚍𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕.
𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.』
“When I describe Dazai to the staff, there is a phrase that I always use, “an unworldly being with a mental age of two thousand years.” Dazai has far surpassed the mental dimension that human can reach, thus no-one can even tell if the emotions he shows are the real things or not.
There are rare moments when that Dazai shows his very “human” side. That is when he talks to another superhuman who is on the same level with him. The other is when he talks about his old friend who has passed.
This is the scene when Kyouka wondered “Maybe I’m, after all, just a murderer at heart.” and refused to be saved. And Dazai’s reaction to that. When he said “Don’t give me any of that!” here, he really meant it. That was an outburst from Dazai, as a 22-year-old boy, in this scene.”
(Bungou Stray Dogs Chapter 35 - Easygoingscan’s version)
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TN: I went to the BSD exhibition in Ikebukuro today and they have Asagiri’s comments on each character and their important scene, that I find very nice so I’m gonna find time to translate them little by little.
So I'm writing a Soukoku fanfic and-
Good job, Google Docs, Good job. Because Chuuya's first flying by Dazai's face makes so much more sense than his fist. Yeah, totally. I understand.
We kill others to save our own skin - that’s the way of the world, isn’t it?
Dazai Osamu, “Run, Melos!” from Crackling Mountain and Other Stories
And this is exactly at least part of why I'm rewriting HYLY on Ao3. That and the just all around more secure filtering system.
you read stuff on wattpad for shit and giggles where most of the fics there are reader-inserted ones written in 1st person pov where y/n is a barely legal white girl with blonde hair and blue “orbs” who’s so smol and fragile that she’s dependent entirely on this morally questionable guy who’s killing people for a living but for some reason happens to have a soft spot for her.
you read real actual literature on archive of our own where it’s two middle aged men, who are each other’s sworn enemies, with tragic past, trauma and strong homoerotic tension. and while they’ve made each other bleed, killed each other’s friends and loved ones out of jealousy / possessiveness, lied and betrayed and manipulated, the rawness, depth, complexity and slow burn will keep you up all night, haunt you during your day and possibly change your life forever. and also the sex isn’t just smut. the sex is poetry that puts Shakespeare to shame
Starting today I’m going to be a man with courage in his heart. When a person falls to the very depths of suffering - where he can find no escape - he is somehow able to find new courage.
Dazai Osamu, A New Hamlet
The townspeople found many pretexts for their treatment of him: he forgets things, they said, he is an idiot, he is unclean, he steals. They succeeded only in reducing him to permanent beggarhood and sealing him off from the world of human emotions.
Kunikida Doppo, “Old Gen” from Five Stories by Kunikida Doppo
✎𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚢 𝚟𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛.⚰︎ ⚠︎𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭⚠︎ ⧼ᴀᴅᴜʟᴛ⧽ ➳ ℑ 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔞 𝔤𝔬𝔬𝔡 𝔟𝔬𝔬𝔨 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔞 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖐𝖊𝖗 𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊 𓆩🥀𓆪 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗪𝗜𝗣: "𝙃𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪, 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪" [Soukoku ║ Shin Soukoku] ⛓⛓ 『𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜.』 - 𝙳𝚊𝚣𝚊𝚒 𝙾𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚞, 𝙽𝚘 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗
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