Monica Wood helps you squeeze the greatest flavor from the language. She segments description like an orange, separating its slices to let you sample each one.

You'll learn about:

• Detail, and how you can use description to awaken the reader's senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight
  
  
• Plot, from advancing story using only relevant description–and how to edit out sluggish, reader-stopping writing
  
  
• Style, and the use of description to create a mood that matches your story's content
  
  
• Point of view, how selecting omniscient, first person or third person limited narrative influences the descriptive freedom you have
  
  
• Creating original word depictions of people, animals, places, weather and movement

You'll also see samples of work by such noted writers as Mark Helprin, Anne Tyler and Raymond Carver. And you'll find the dos and don'ts, lists and descriptive alternatives to common verbs and nouns, and tips for editing your work.