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I remember Stephen King once said to me

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that Amy Tan grumbled to him

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that when writers get interviewed, the

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one thing they don't ask us about is the

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words. And the words are the most

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important things that we have. The words

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are what we're doing everything with. If

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you're writing a novel, you're going to

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have to use 70,000 of them, 100,000,

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200,000 of them. So, in the next class,

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we're going to talk about words. We're

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going to talk about language and all of

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the things you can do with it. We're

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going to talk about humor. We're going

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to talk about world building. All as

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things that you can do with words.

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I do not hold with anybody who says no

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exposition, no description.

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You describe what needs to be described.

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You explain what needs to be explained.

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You are God. When you are writing, you

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are absolutely in charge. You can do

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whatever you like. There are no rules

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other than tell a great story, tell it

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as best you can. But there is an

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enormous pleasure to just telling. And

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sometimes you can describe places. Let's

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see. Uh,

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in Neverware, what I was doing was

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describing a world and the world of

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London below was as much of a character

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as any of the characters in the book.

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So, one of the things that I loved doing

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was describing places

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and describing people and trying to make

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them

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vivid, trying to make the imagery vivid

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in your head. I might not actually

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describe what somebody would look like,

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but I would paint a picture that would

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get you as a reader to imagine what they

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look like. Um, for example,

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fashion in bodyguards seemed to be

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everything. They all had a knack of one

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kind or another, and each of them was

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desperate to demonstrate it to the

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world. At this moment, Riseip was facing

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off against the fop with no name.

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The fop with no name looked somewhat

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like an early 18th century rake, one who

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hadn't been able to find real rake

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clothes and had to make do with what he

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could find at the Oxfam shop. His face

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was powdered to white, his lips painted

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red. Rise, the Fox opponent, looked like

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the kind of dream one might have if one

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fell asleep watching sumo wrestling on

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the television with a Bob Marley record

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playing in the background. He was a huge

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Rastaparian who looked like nothing so

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much as an obese and enormous baby. They

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were standing face to face in the middle

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of a cleared circle of spectators and

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other bodyguards and sightseers. Neither

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man moved a muscle. The fop was a good

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head taller than Riceip. On the other

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hand, Riceip weighed as much as four

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fops, each of them carrying a large

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leather suitcase entirely filled with

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lard. They stared at each other without

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breaking eye contact.

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That's a way of describing people.

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On the other hand,

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this is a description

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of a city and it's a description of a

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familiar city.

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3 years in London had not changed

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Richard, although it had changed the way

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he perceived the city. Richard had

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originally imagined London as a gray

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city, even a black city from the

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pictures he had seen, and was surprised

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to find it filled with color. It was a

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city of red brick and white stone, red

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buses, and large black taxis, which were

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often, to Richard's initial puzzlement,

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gold or green or maroon, bright red post

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boxes, and green grassy parks and

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cemeteries. It was a city in which the

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very old and the awkwardly new jostled

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each other, not uncomfortably, but

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without respect. A city of shops and

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offices and restaurants and homes, of

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parks and churches, of ignored monuments

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and remarkably unpalatial palaces. A

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city of hundreds of districts with

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strange names. Crouch End, Chalk Farm,

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Ears Court, Marble Arch, and oddly

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distinct identities. A noisy, dirty,

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cheerful, troubled city which fed on

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tourists, needed them as it despised

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them, in which the average speed of

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transportation through the city had not

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increased in 300 years following 500

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years of fitful road widening and

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unskillful compromises between the needs

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of traffic, whether horsedrawn or more

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recently motorized, and the needs of

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pedestrians. a city inhabited by and

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teameming with people of every color and

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manner and kind.

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And that's the kind of place where you

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just go, "Yeah, I'm going to describe

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it." There's no reason not to. There's

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no reason to

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show don't tell, whatever that actually

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means. When you want to tell somebody

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what a city looks like, tell them.

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Why show it? Why not just tell? It's a

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lovely scene setting and it sets up a

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place in which the story is going to

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occur.

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So for description

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what I try and do

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is I will scene set I'll set a scene for

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people. I'll describe a person. I'll

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describe a gate. I'll describe a grave.

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But what I will do is assume that people

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generally know

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what a tree looks like, what a house

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looks like, what a door looks like. So

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what I'll try and tell them while I'm

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describing

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is what makes this a little different?

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What makes this memorable?

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And

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it doesn't have to be very big.

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It can be a fairly small image,

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but it can be a tree that looks like a

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clutching hand trying to grab the

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clouds.

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And suddenly you know why that tree is

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different to all the other trees

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and it evokes emotion.

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And that's the other lovely thing that

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you can do if you can with description

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is do more than one thing at the same

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time.

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Um,

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I used to be spoiled

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because when I would write comics, I

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would just describe what we were seeing

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to an artist and tell them to draw that

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thing. In pros,

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you have to be more evocative.

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When you're writing a description, um,

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the most important thing is to find

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something. Find one thing that is

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memorable, one thing that's important,

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one thing that's different.

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And then look at that using a sense. It

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may be touch. It may be smell. Smell is

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often ignored in writing and smell in

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the real world is subliminal, rolling,

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evocative and very very likely to take

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you to very strange places. It can be

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taste, it can be touch. You you need to

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invoke whatever is going to be

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strongest. And it's not just the way

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that something looks. Something looks is

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always it's always useful. It's always

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important. Um but sometimes how it feels

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can be much much more powerful.

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In Coraline,

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I have Coraline

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going through a tunnel, a weird kind of

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little tunnel to get from the world that

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she's used to. She's opened a door that

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normally opens onto a brick wall and now

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it doesn't. There's a passage.

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And

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let's see.

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Here's a little bit in Coraline.

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Coraline turned her back on the door and

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began to run as fast as was practical

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through the dark corridor, running her

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hand along the wall to make sure she

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didn't bump into anything or get turned

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around in the darkness. It was an uphill

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run, and it seemed to her that it went

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on for a longer distance than anything

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could possibly go. The wall she was

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touching felt warm and yielding now, and

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she realized it felt as if it were

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covered in a fine downy fur. It moved as

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if it were taking a breath. She snatched

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her hand away from it. Winds howled in

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the dark.

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She was scared she would bump into

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something, and she put out her hand for

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the wall once more. This time what she

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touched felt hot and wet as if she had

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put her hand in somebody's mouth and she

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pulled it back with a small whale.

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And it's the kind of moment where touch

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suddenly becomes the only sense that

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matters. And a moment like that where

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you're touching something warm and wet

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um is the stuff of nightmares.