Describing building

 

Hello, friends!

Today, I'd like to remind all of us writing folks that writing descriptions of the buildings is not something we should leave out of our creative process. 

While it may seem boring and unnecessary to do, writing even a sentence or two can already make the part more immersive and also pass some kind of information to the reader.

Let's start with a few examples:

I entered the building, careful not to touch any of the spiderwebs clinging to its walls. The building, with its gray walls and squarish shape, didn't catch my attention at first. I wasn't used to houses like that - twice as big as my own, with a pool in the garden and a representative terrace.

Now, all of those could be easily written without the descriptions, leaving them at:

I entered the building carefully. It didn't catch my attention at first. I wasn't used to houses like that.

What's wrong with those sentences? 

All of them introduce places, but give us zero information other than what the character’s REACTION was. We don't know WHY the reaction was the way it was, we're also left with no instructions regarding what we should imagine the place like.

From those examples we can draw a few important lessons regarding describing buildings.

First - if we skip describing, the part will most probably sound bad

Second - descriptions make the reading more immersive

Third - with descriptions we can say things without actually saying them

Now, HOW can I describe buildings? You don't have to use the visual descriptions only - make use of all of your senses!

Examples:

“The room smelled of rotten tomatoes”

“The wind was howling through the empty corridors”

“I started shivering the moment I entered the laboratory”

Describing share information better than saying them straight forward. Look at the example:

version A: “It was cold in the laboratory” → plain, no emotions, simply letting the reader know a fact 

version B: “I started shivering the moment I entered the laboratory” → we can FEEL the character's experience, we're letting the reader conclude “it was probably cold there”

Of course we can take a step further and describe the building's decorations and architectonic style it was build in, but keep in mind that you should consider from whose perspective you're writing - whether your character knows those facts, or it's the narrator sharing the technicalities.

Let's now return to the first examples and show what are they telling us through the descriptions:

“I entered the building, careful not to touch any of the spiderwebs clinging to its walls” - the building was dirty, not well taken care of, perhaps abandoned

“The building, with its gray walls and squarish shape, didn't catch my attention at first” - the building looks basic and isn't interesting to look at

 “I wasn't used to houses like that - twice as big as my own, with a pool in the garden and a representative terrace” - the building is big, expensive and luxurious, probably owned by someone rich