How to Create Effective Descriptions for Children

Colorful description is an art that evokes in detail a particular place and time. It brings the experience alive for the young reader. Specifics are what breathe life into your words and make imaginative reading. The following tips will guide you to create effective word descriptions for children.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Imagination
• Sensory experiences

How to Write With Sensory Impact

1. Show, don’t tell. This is a cardinal rule of creative writing for youngsters. It applies to characterization, action or settings. Dynamic writing shows a detailed picture to the reader, instead of telling about it.
   
   Show: Freckles like cinnamon polka dots sprinkled across her cheeks.
   Tell: She had freckles all over her face.
   
   Showing means using specific description details to illustrate your points and give them life.
2. Describe in sensory detail. The secret of writing vivid, living descriptions that leap off the pages into the reader’s heart is sensory detail. Your real starting point is your own sensitivity. Begin now to collect striking details for future story settings and atmosphere. Make all five senses work for you. Your eyes will note swirling colors and shapes. Your ears will catch unusual sounds. Your nose will inhale fragrant scents. Your fingers will touch sleek, smooth objects.Your tongue will test tasty tidbits.
3. Watch people wisely. You can draw on a rich sensory data bank for characters as well. Train yourself to really look at and listen to the people you meet everyday. Watch their facial expressions, whimsical gestures, and body language. Hear their vocal expressions, speech mannerisms, quirky slang lingo and tone of voice. Seed your stories with sensory specifics. Children are strongly sense-oriented and will respond readily to sensory rich story fragments.
4. Use specific language. Convey your story in precise, clear images. Avoid general statements and express exactly what you want the reader to see with specific words.
   
   Avoid: The dog ran across the meadow.
   Adopt: The russet-red retriever raced across the meadow.
5. Edit abstract labels. Words that categorize but don’t really describe squelch creative writing. We’re all familiar with “beautiful”, “awful”, “delicious” and “terrible”. These words, and others like them, are general in meaning, or abstract. They create no image in the reader’s mind. Find words that paint specific pictures of real qualities and characteristics.
   
   Abstract: beautiful sunset
   Specific: sunset streaked with crimson-purple clouds

Tips & Warnings

• Link simple, concrete colors and textures to strong, specific nouns and verbs for a dynamic sensory impact.