Vjylku

I find it very hard sometimes to describe a scenery, especially when the features are very bland, like you describe a city where all of the buildings are tall and look about the same or a plain with green grass with a sprinkle of green leafy trees. What are some ways of extending a descriptive paragraph?

When describing the scenery, your goal isn't only to convey dry information (there are houses, there are trees, etc.). Your goal is to evoke some emotion, some feeling. Your key to extending the description of the scenery is therefore in what feeling you wish to evoke.

For example, I look at a desert - miles and miles of yellow dunes stretching before me. All same-y, you could say. But how do I feel? Am I in awe of the beauty, the colours, the magnificence and sheer size of God's creation? In such a case, description would focus on the colours, the play of light and shade, the changing patterns of the sand.

Am I apprehensive, because I need to cross this desert, and there's the risk of getting lost, and while I should have enough water, I can afford no accidents, and who knows what's hiding in there? In such a case, the description would focus on the heat, and how I can see nothing but sand stretching to the horizon, and the sun beats on my face (a violent verb).

If you describe a city, are the buildings tall and oppressive, the streets narrow, the air stifling, do you feel small, do you feel you do not belong in this city?

Or are the tall buildings straining to touch the sky, a proud testimony to man's ingenuity, and you're excited to walk among them?

If you're describing "home", do you wish to evoke a sense of comfort and warmth, or a sense of boring familiarity one's eager to leave on an adventure?

Start from what you wish to evoke, and then find in the scenery the elements that support that feeling. You can use sight, sounds, smell, temperature, your character can be reminded of something, but it all should paint one image, one emotion.

When describing scenery is coming out a little flat, I try to add a few specific items to be descriptive about. I usually pick three or seven because they are magic numbers (depending on how much detail I think the scene needs added to it) and I try to be specific.

For example, in my city, with tall buildings that all look the same, I may describe a storefront window, or a wall with graffiti on it (maybe layers of graffiti), or a broken fire hydrant leaking water into the street, or the potholes, or a homeless panhandler, or some shiny mural that there city recently had an artist put up.

These details will start to give your reader something to visualize as you talk about your scene, and you can use them as landmarks at other points in the story.

Not only will this give your scene some uniqueness, but it will set a mood and tone for your story. The homeless guy evokes different emotions than a beautiful mural, and graffiti something else. Do you want your city to be run-down and drab, or lovely and colorful?

The nice thing about these little specifics is they can be used to add symbols with extra layers of meaning. Or foreshadowing. Or any literary device you can think of. For instance, won't it be poetic, when later in the story a fire breaks out and the fire department shows up, but the hydrant is broken? The storefront you described burns while they find an alternate, but they manage to stop the fire just before it reaches the mural, which happens to depict the aftermath of a major fire from one-hundred and eighty-seven years ago.