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All of us have weaknesses and strengths in writing. Mine falls is definitely the "descriptive narrative." I would rather write dialog than anything else.

As I struggle with my descriptive narrative, I find it interesting that I just finished reading a Patricia Cornwall novel (I think it is my 2nd) and she uses not descriptive narrative at all. I can't tell you what the main character of her book looks like. I am sure that she has described her in previous books, but her stark style and the popularity of her books make me think that maybe the "descriptive" part of the narrative is not all that important as long as you spin a pretty good yarn.

One line in the book reads, "the window was stubborn, but not as stubborn as Marino." It is stark, but conveys a image that leaves it up to the reader to imagine.

It is the like paintings of George Seurat, who didn't mix his paints on the pallet, but painted separate dots of color on his canvas because the human eye could mix the colors more powerfully than he could.

I would like to open the discussion on how others write descriptive narrative, or the role of descriptive narrative, and perhaps I will learn something that I can employ in my own writing.

First, I think to do this right you need to start a new thread for each new topic or facet like the other regular special focus groups do.

Second, my observation is that you can go crazy trying to figure out what agents/publishers want. My writing has been compared to that of Nicholas Sparks (which I disagree) and John Grishom (mmmmm, maybe) by agents. Both times I said "thanks you," and both times they said, "But I hate the way he writes."

Sort of like the Yankees saying, "Thanks, but we don't need another lefty who throws 98 mph fast balls."

Go figure.

I enjoy descriptive narrative. One of my most favorite novels is "Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy. His descriptive narrative is so strong that I can almost smell the low country, the marshes.

As for me, writing dialogue is so very tedious.

THanks for the ping.

As I struggle with my descriptive narrative, I find it interesting that I just finished reading a Patricia Cornwall novel (I think it is my 2nd) and she uses not descriptive narrative at all. I can't tell you what the main character of her book looks like. I am sure that she has described her in previous books, but her stark style and the popularity of her books make me think that maybe the "descriptive" part of the narrative is not all that important as long as you spin a pretty good yarn.

Descriptive narrative is hard. It’s important, but its not. It slows down a story for most people. I’ll bet you most of us, reading a novel loaded with description, will unconsciously skip it and get to action or dialog.

The trick is to make description very potent, or mix it in with action and dialog. And even more important, consider your audience. If you’re writing a thriller, description should be crisp and brief. If you’re writing chicklit, the audience is going to want to be there, to see it.

I personally can write pages of dialog with little effort. Description slows me way down, and is drudgery.

You must try and capture the flames as they writhe and rise and trap the smoke before it escapes the light.