Where are your weak spots?

[inkdust]

I've known for a while now that I struggle with grounding my scenes with setting details. I'm so wary of drawn-out descriptions of places and people that I run the risk of writing scenes that read more like dialogue scripts. So one element of tackling my second draft is consciously adding in more background details.

Where are your writing weaknesses? What do you do to try to overcome them?

Comments

[sarillia]

What I've found works for me is having my first-person protagonist compare other people to themselves and having not just a description but a reaction to what they look like. Saying that she couldn't imagine having hair as long as the woman she just met, her shoulder-length hair is as much as she can manage. Or that the athletic man in front of him made him feel self-conscious about the way he's let himself go in recent years. Or when she meets someone as short as she is she thinks about how nice it is to not have to look up to look them in the eye for once.

[inkdust]

I definitely see comparison as the best way to describe a protagonist. I was really pleased in my current story when my MC saw an old photo of her mom and aunt and I was able to say that they all had the same color hair. Her relationship to them is huge in the story, so it was even significant to the plot :D