Who are the most instructive authors to read to improve one's description skills? [closed]
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Are there any authors who went down in history as "masters of descriptions" (either of characters or of locations) or similar?
Of course, there are many different aspects one can use to regard a writer as remarkable in this aspect, be it for very specific reasons (for example, an author well-known for highly creative metaphors or picturesque vocabulary) or simply for sheer excellence in being engaging or as accurate as possible.
Since the focus here is a more didactic one, i.e. reading particular works and learning from them (than coming to a verdict about who's best), I'm looking either for an answer considering some of these aspects separately, or, alternatively, one naming writers renowned for masterfully combining several of them.
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1 answer
Evelyn Waugh and John Steinbeck would be excellent places to start.
But while there are no doubt many ways to excel at description, metaphors, broad vocabulary, and figures of speech are not any of them.
Great description is not about flowery language, it is about highlighting the telling detail.
Thus Waugh, in chapter one of Brideshead Revisited:
I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer;
Nothing fancy here, just the absolute right details to call the kind of day to mind.
Thus, also, Steinbeck in chapter 1 of Cannery Row:
Lee Chong's grocery, while not a model of neatness, was a miracle of supply. It was small and crowded but within it single room a man could find everything he needed or wanted to live and be happy---clothes, food, both fresh and canned, liquor, tobacco, fishing equipment, machinery, boats, cordage, caps, pork chops. You could buy at Lee Chong's a pair of slippers, a silk kimono, a quarter pint of whiskey and a cigar. You could work out combinations to fit almost any mood.
Again, no fancy technique, just a brilliant eye for the right detail to bring the whole scene to life.
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