Anyone who has studied Physics at GCSE or above will probably be able to finish the the title of this post. Sir Isaac Newton formulated his 3 laws of motion some time around 1700 (I’m no historian) and these have been taught to physicists ever since. This third law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, is one I often quote in writing workshops. However, I must apologise to Sir Isaac, as I’ve sort of hijacked his law and adapted it into Mark Robson’s First Law of writing short fictional stories.

Mark Robson’s First Law goes like this:

For every description there must be a reaction.

If you apply this rule religiously, it will stop you waffling and keep you from falling into the most common trap that young writers fall into when starting a story – the dreaded “information dump”. Even the best descriptions can fall flat if they’re not relevant in a very personal way to your protagonist. Whenever you write, try to imagine you are the character.

As Barry said in a previous post, you can use the senses of the character to explore your environment, thus making the description a personal one that the reader can relate to. Sometimes, however, you do need to throw in a few straight facts. When you do this always ask yourself the question “How does my character feel about this?” If the answer is “Scared!” don’t just write: Jack felt scared. Think how you would physically feel if you were in Jack’s situation. How does it feel to be scared? Does your heart start to pound? Does your mouth go dry? Do you feel hot or cold? Do your hands start to shake? What would you be thinking? Show the reader something real and you will take the reader deeper into your world.

Here’s an example of a description that I wrote of a teacher for one of my short stories:

Everything about Miss Liverwort said ‘No nonsense’. Her voice was hard as concrete and her every movement was sharp and precise. She always wore her hair scraped back and wound into a tight bun on the back of her head, which made the rest of her face seem more angular and harsh. Her most deadly weapons, though, were her eyes. They were like lasers. I reckon she could drill a Year 4 kid at a hundred yards with them.

The description paints a fairly vivid picture, but then I add the reaction …

Right now she had one eyebrow raised at a sharp angle and a chill ran down my spine as her lasers wound up to full power.

Now the description has particular relevance to my main character. It’s become personal.

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