Welcome to a bonus episode of Writing with Coach McCoach. This is part of our Ask Coach series.
I got this question in my email and I wanted to answer it on the podcast because I think that it is a great question that many people have probably asked in a version of. So the question comes from Don and he asked, how much importance do you place on imagery in a suspense slash light horror genre? I have read many novels where the writer adds way too much unnecessary description. I know we must ground the reader into the setting and paint word pictures, but sometimes writers stall the pacing of the result. I also like to leave room for the reader's imagination to fill in some of the details on their own. Finding that balance is one of my toughest challenges. So to sum it up, how much importance do you place on imagery in, I'm going to say this was specifically in a suspense or light horror genre, but I'm going to say in any book.
So I really wanted to answer this with a few letters. So I'm going to dive into it here. Hopefully this will help you as you think about writing description and imagery. Here's my very first, very quick answer, and then we'll dive into more, but you do you. That might seem kind of annoying of an answer at first, but here's the thing. There is no one right way. Stephen King in his memoir on writing says to leave it more in the reader's imagination, but others would say, give it all. So I really think it depends on your style and what feels ideal for you and your ideal reader. I want you to think about the one person you imagine loving this book. What would they want when you don't know that one person, then maybe it's you. Would you want in this case, Don, he says, I don't really love when they overdo it. Okay, then that's your style. And so then don't overdo it when you do it.
Also keep in mind though, what one person thinks is overly descriptive, someone else might not. So it is tricky at times to hit that balance, what works best.
And so I'm going to give you some practical tips. You can work through this yourself and figure out what is your style. How do you include description without it being purple prose, which is like a phrase that's used when it's kind of overly flowery, maybe goes on a little longer than necessary. Sometimes that can be great. Sometimes not so much. And also though, it depends on genre.
So I will say really quick, if you are, for example, writing literary fiction, there's a little more emphasis placed on description and imagery and the prose itself. We do spend a little more time there exploring it. Now on the other hand, you might be writing young adult. I would say in young adult, you're going to want to be a little quicker with description. You're going to want to be a little more like, here, let's set the stage. But also it's how the characters interacting and it's what, what in the world was a teenager actually care about in description. So it's not going to be usually as flowery or as long winded than it could potentially be in literary fiction.
And then of course, then you want to think about beyond that, like what is your genre? What do you need to express in the type of book it is? So in horror or darker fiction or suspense, you are going to want to pay attention to the vocab you use. So you're going to want to set a tone and use certain vocabulary that really sets a dark tone. It feels creepy and eerie and you're using phrasing and words and you're noticing things or your character is that just gives that, hey, you know that this is not a contemporary fiction book. Like we are in a comedy and vice versa, right? Like if you're writing a rom-com, then you're going to have like more lighthearted words that you're using. Literally, it can come down to the actual vocabulary.
And then you also like, what do you pay attention to? What do you not? So this is the way that I always think about description and imagery. My one constant piece of advice is to link it back to the point of view character. How is the character seeing slash viewing slash experiencing this world? If something they see or feel or touch, et cetera, matters to them enough for it to be on the page. The question is why so insert hints of that. So for example, maybe you want to set a tone of, you know, something's not right here, but not pinpoint what. So what would the character notice or feel? Is it the way the curtains are drawn or the shadows they see or the specific sounds? What can you use to show us what's unique or needs to be noticed without, you know, knocking us over the head is my point of view on that. Or in fantasy, for example, in world building, what elements of the world does the character interact with most? What's new to them? What's not, what do they care about or what stands in their way? What parts of the system or world matter to them? And those are going to show up on the page. What doesn't, and that probably won't show up or it'll be breezed over.
In many of these ways, you can think of these things literally and figuratively. Like what matters and what stands in their way, literally what is in their way, what are they noticing and figuratively, like what are things to be aware of? So when you're going through description, just pull it back to what would my character notice? And this is also a little hint or tip or whatever is that this can actually really be a great way to establish different voices. So if you are writing a multiple point of view novel and you have different point of view characters, say one chapter you are on character X and the next chapter character Z and the next one character A. If you are writing different point of view characters, then it's great because think about what each one would notice when they walk into a room.
One of my examples I use for this is like, say an assassin walks into a room. They're probably first going to notice everything that can be used as a weapon. Say that someone who just escaped prison or something or a prisoner is in the room or someone who's been trying to escape forever. What would they notice when they walk into the room? They might notice every exit. So think about when your character walks into a room or when they're experiencing something, what is it they would notice and why does that matter? Because when you put any sort of attention, any words on the page that describes anything, remember that you're telling a reader this is important. This is something you need to know.
That's when writing description can feel overwhelming or like a lot or it can bog things down if it feels like this doesn't matter. If you're writing description that technically you could take it out and it really doesn't change much, then why was it there in the first place? So I know that we want to set the stage sometimes and yes, it's important to ground your readers and let them know where they are, where is your character physically? But beyond that, sometimes the description that is going to stand out to the reader the most is the stuff that the character is specifically interacting with in some way. They see it, they hear it, they feel it, they taste it, they acknowledge it, they are aware of it, they're not aware of it. And that is trickier to show for sure when you're really deep into one point of view. But this is also what makes being in deep point of view, like really being in one person's head at a time really fun because it shows how narrow their vision is of the world, how narrow their perspective is. And that actually can be so freaking fun. That's why I personally love deep point of view. I love we are in one character's head at a time.
But if you are doing more of an omniscient point of view, then that means you're kind of God-like, all-knowing. It's almost like watching a movie instead. I will say in this case, then think about what are things that everyone needs to know or be aware of in a scene so that it does set the stage like you would in a movie. So if you were thinking about you're writing the script, what are the things you would put in your script notes to say, this has to be included? A lot of times in scripts, you really don't do big notes. It's character dialogue, right? And the only time you do, and I want to say it's called direction, but I could be wrong, is you just want to say if anything specific needs to be included, if there's an action or an expression a character does that's very specific, that is adding to the moment that you can't see through the dialogue or you can't feel or tell. And then also if they're interacting with, again, if they're interacting with the scene, the setting in some way.
So just constantly go back to what are my characters interacting with? What is something that the readers need to be aware of? And if they don't need to know about it, probably don't need to include it. That's when things get a little flowery and overloaded.
Okay. You can tell, can't talk much more. So that is it for today. So that's one of our Ask Coach bonus episodes. I hope this helps. And if you ever have other questions, just click on the link in the show notes, and then you can submit your question and I will answer it here on the podcast. I'll probably send out an email to my list too and share the answer there.
All right. Until next time, writers, keep growing.
