Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively

Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan is, without a doubt, one of the best writing related books I have ever purchased. Oh, other reference books have come and gone -- mostly to an auction site or a used bookstore -- but Word Painting is one that stays on my shelf and won't be going anywhere. Is it a book heavy on technical information? Absolutely. At times it reads like a textbook for a writing class, so that might surprise some. But the more I read this book (and I go back to re-read it regularly) the more I learn. To say that Word Painting is merely a book that teaches you how to write more descriptively would be an injustice to the material contained inside. Word Painting tackles all the standard writing "must knows" like tenses and points of view, moves on to the art of creating your own, unique similes and metaphors (avoiding the cliche), tackles passive vs. active & cluttered vs. uncluttered prose, then moves on to the biggies like setting, and how writing descriptively weaves into narration, description, and exposition to form the larger framework of your overall story...how writing descriptively affects your narrative voice. McClanahan teaches you to look at the world, people and things around you with an "artist's" eye, noticing texture and sound and light, then guides you through translating what you see and hear and smell and touch onto the page in words so the reader can experience that with you. Not only did this book teach me the importance of description and how it helps shape a story, it taught me the importance of all the various elements of fiction writing AND how to write them in a balance. Each chapter is full of useful information, but I'm not going to lie and say that it's not heavy reading. It is. But then writing is an art and a skill and it takes time, dedication, and the willingness to hone your skills into the craft. This is not light afternoon reading, and it's definitely a book you have to keep coming back to again and again because what you missed one time will click in the next, then something else the next. To me, that's an indispensable writing tool because it's not a one shot deal like so many other books that you buy, read once, then never read again. Word Painting -- like your writing -- is an evolving book that grows with you. When people ask me for "how to write" book recommendations, Word Painting is first (and often only) book that comes to mind.

........now that I've moved past the basics of fiction-writing and I'm working on honing my skills, McClanahan's "Word Painting" has proven invaluable to teaching me how to be more descriptive in my writing. I have read and highighted this book over and over, gaining something more from it each time I re-read. I might add that the exercises in the back of each chapter have proven enormously helpful to me.McClanahan shows us the relevance of description in our writing by showing us just how it impacts a story in each of its complex facets. She presents chapters on metaphor, point of view, setting, plot and pace, "seeing" and translating what we see into words, and bringing our characters to life. I highly recommend this book to any fiction writer who has moved beyond writing basics and feels ready to further develop the skill of writing more descriptively. This book has helped me immensely!

This book has been a godsend to me. It's been enormously helpful in doing the final edit of my novel. Reading it made me feel like I had my own personal editor. The conversational tone of the book is inviting, nurturing, and encouraging. Any discussion of point of view usually makes me groan, but the way Rebecca McClanahan writes about it is exceptionally sane, enthralling even. The author is a master teacher, writer, and reader. Rebecca McClanahan is generous in sharing the secrets of her fine craft.This book would be fabulous for intermediate to advanced writers to read at least once a year to help keep the pencil sharp. The writing exercises are provocative and creative.This book showed me many things I would never have learned on my own. It made me want to be a better writer.

This book is a valuable tool for any writer, and I have been recommending it to all my students here at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Teachers, especially those who work with beginning creative writers in a community setting, will find the incredible exercises listed at the end of each chapter invaluable. I find myself asking, why didn't I think of that one? The examples she uses to illustrate her comments on using all five senses are drawn from the classics and from contemporary sources, all chosen for Virginia Woolf's "common reader." The language is very readable and approachable; and the charm and enthusiasm of the writer comes through. This is the best teaching tool I have bought in years.