vivid adjectives to develop sensory description

Descriptive writing provides literary texture to a story. Texture shows rather than tells. A writer shows the reader through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, as well as through emotional feelings.

Descriptive details enable the reader to visualize elements in the story.

Vivid adjectives and active verbs help the writer to develop specific sensory descriptions.

 For example:
  The woman on the beach watched the sun set over the ocean. TELLS

 Shades of neon illuminated the edges of clouds, backlit by the sizzling sun that slipped beneath a cerulean sea. SHOWS


 #Notice that sentences that TELL tend to be direct. They are objective. Sentences that TELL record verifiable facts as a scientist or journalist might.

 Sentences that SHOW are subjective; they may be influenced in part by the writer’s personal experiences. Sentences that SHOW create mental images, and elicit emotional response.