How do you explain the surroundings?

[hdofficial1]

How do you explain the place or the surroundings after first seeing them?

 

[Lire]

My two cents.

The first cent: Have someone interact with the place.
Like...
Their hair gets swept up by the wind that smelled of nature. Or how their nose scrunches up because of the crap that somebody didn't flush. Or they unconsciously cup their ears cuz of the freaking metal band just screaming their heads off on the stage. Maybe they cover their eyes because of the spotlight shining down upon them.


The second cent: compare them to something/someplace.

[The place] was nothing like [this place], but it was still filled with an air of elegance and luxury. How the leaves fell upon them like rain. yadda yadda.

OR, you can just info dump it. Just. DUMP it in there. I don't really advise this though.

 

[DarkeReises]

you dont

 

[hdofficial1]

My two cents.

The first cent: Have someone interact with the place.
Like...
Their hair gets swept up by the wind that smelled of nature. Or how their nose scrunches up because of the crap that somebody didn't flush. Or they unconsciously cup their ears cuz of the freaking metal band just screaming their heads off on the stage. Maybe they cover their eyes because of the spotlight shining down upon them.


The second cent: compare them to something/someplace.

[The place] was nothing like [this place], but it was still filled with an air of elegance and luxury. Or how their feet sunk into the soil (implying that it is soft earth). How the leaves fell upon them like rain. yadda yadda.

OR, you can just info dump it. Just. DUMP it in there. I don't really advise this though.

the first and the info dump really help.
seems like I just need to dump it all. thanks.

 

[Jailbreak571]

...
I see

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Carefully.

I tend to use Google maps street view or other images when when I'm having difficulty with descriptions.

 

[Nixeris]

I haven't written anything yet, but a detail I love seeing in stories is describing it how the POV character would.

Are they observant, passive, or too focused on their task to take notice until they can have a moment to breathe? Are they more attentive to the people or something else? Are they more visual or auditory when observing new surroundings? What catches their attention? For example, if you asked the character to talk about a forest they visited, would they passionately go on about the fauna and flora, or shrug and say it's a bunch of trees and not much else? Or something in the middle, like they didn't pay attention until a bird made a weird noise?

Just something to think about!

 

[CupcakeNinja]

How do you explain the place or the surroundings after first seeing them?

well im not blind so i usually just describe what I'm looking at. Color is a big one, i describe color all the time I gots me a blue throw blanket the other day, put it atop my plush, red recliner i snagged from GoodWIll. Its a bit frayed on some edges, but that's why i got the blanket

 

[ThrillingHuman]

I usually look for landmarks. If someone phones me and asks where I am and I don't know, I go "well, there is a store named X and there is a fountain nearby"

 

[Shard]

I haven't written anything yet, but a detail I love seeing in stories is describing it how the POV character would.

Are they observant, passive, or too focused on their task to take notice until they can have a moment to breathe? Are they more attentive to the people or something else? Are they more visual or auditory when observing new surroundings? What catches their attention? For example, if you asked the character to talk about a forest they visited, would they passionately go on about the fauna and flora, or shrug and say it's a bunch of trees and not much else? Or something in the middle, like they didn't pay attention until a bird made a weird noise?

Just something to think about!

This is something I consider a must. Most people won't notice the fine details of a random bush beside the road, but you might have a botanist who finds the shape of the leaves interesting and stops to look at it. You may have someone who enjoys cloudwatching, and they miss the details around them because they are busy looking at the sky.

This also allows you to describe the same place multiple times without it being boring, just have several different characters go there and shift the viewpoint to them. Likewise, you can give general descriptions when someone is busy, and detailed when they are relaxed, as they have more time to take in the surroundings.

 

[placeintime]

I think you might be overthinking it too much.

Just use your five senses to describe the place like what the place smells like, what colors you see, and so on. Most of the time, when you describe a place, usually you use a person's perspective.

An example is a forest. Some things you can think of is
-The breeze if it's gentle or not?
-What kinds of trees are around there? Tall or short? colors?
-What sounds do you hear? Like river streams, animal noises
-Is there a smell too?

 

[SilvoidVorstellung]

Sometime you don't need to describe the place, just tell the reader what place it is, don't need to show it if its hold no meaning or important.

But if you want to, try describing it with introspection instead, this could show what emotion the character feeling, what they think, what their outlook on the place all at the same time.

 

[J_Chemist]

I typically use words for it.