Descriptive Writing Prompts

Great descriptive writing invites a reader's own background experience and imagination to join with that of the person who penned it. This fascinating form of synergy creates a powerful emotional response with vivid imagery that, once experienced, is not easily forgotten.

In Writing with Power (sidebar feature), Peter Elbow offers a cookbook teaching approach, designed to help aspiring authors tap into the creative energy available with this kind of descriptive writing.

After the Rain - The smell of wet sagebrush sweeps into my nose. The sky is dark but beautiful. Glimmering puddles lay still. The air is clean and relaxes me. I leave the window open a crack so the sweet smell fills my room as I sleep. The water falling off the roof splats to the ground. Thunder still goes off, and lightning still strikes and flashes. A rainbow peeks out from the dark sky and brightens it. The sun sits in the air and rests. After it rains is one of my favorite things. The smell, the sound, the looks, it is all so beautiful... - Tina

Animal House - Okay animal house, I'll say- A wild mustang! Alright now we're talking! Wild mustangs are beautiful creatures. Very beautiful. They live in wide open prairies! Stampeding through the grass and meadows. The blue sky hangs motionless above them. But birds awake and flitter in their everyday routine. The geese scwauk and tumble through the air. Butterflies go around just as busy as the bees. The pine trees sway in the barreling wind and flowers give a splattered paint look.

The grass feels like tiny bristles, but they break into a soft touch. Green, lime green, dark green, emerald green and a hint of blue colors it. The sky darkens to a thundering over hang and then again becomes a blue motionless splash of water. But the ever chittering birds create commotion and the geese can't stop being ever so annoying. The butterflies visit a few of their favorite hot spots before gliding into the air themselves. The bees come around to do some harvesting and buzz their anger into the breeze. The trees become a swaying hoola dance as the wind filters through their branches. And the flowers and completely there for the looks. Razor Wing

My Favorite Things - My hobby is to draw and sketch. Different scenes dance in my thoughts, and I think of what to draw next. My pencil runs down the paper, swaying this way and that. Lightly touching the page, or stabbing the lead into it instead.

Then colors cross my mind. But instead I leave it plain. Making things fit together. Lines cross and loop. Eyes are glimmering as if she were actually standing in the light. But she’s not. She is on a white sheet of paper, not quite finished, missing a body.

Gray fire blazes across my paper, but doesn’t seem to burn it. My sketch of a person shows the feeling of evilness. And another next to it showing kindness and peace. They are opposites that look almost identical, but different colors. This just proves that sketching is my way of expressing and letting out my feelings on a small sheet of white paper.... Tiger

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