“Your descriptions are so creepy! Do you watch a lot of horror?” – submitted by F-BOM member
Thank you! It’s always a good day when I get a compliment on descriptions because I have always found them SO hard to write! Usually in the first draft I say what is boring and obvious: green trees, blue sky, etc. Then later I come back and try to make them better. My descriptions do not roll out of me; I have been known to spend an hour writing one paragraph. So I’m always happy to hear a description was well received.
And no, I don’t watch many horror movies! I’m too sensitive to scary imagery and I dislike gore especially. I do enjoy movies where the scare factor is based more on mystery or suspense, such as in The Others. But I can’t really call myself a horror movie person.
The creepy descriptions in Cinderella came from me putting myself inside her head, trying to imagine how she would say things. And I drew from a storytelling device I have sometimes observed in other books where a character describes things based on their own life experience or personal interests. For example, a character who likes to cook might describe an arrogant person as a puffed pastry, or say that a hug was as comforting as warm broth, or that he wants to punch someone’s face like it’s a ball of risen dough. I have found this technique useful. Since Cinderella has a dark outlook, so I drew on things that seemed to match her personality for descriptions.
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