How do I write a description?
JUST START TO WAFFLE!
🔹 W – Weather & Setting (Where is the scene taking place?)
Describe the surroundings using the senses (sight, sound, touch).
Use pathetic fallacy (e.g. stormy weather to reflect danger).
Sentence Starters:
● A pale sun hung low, casting a sickly glow over the endless ice…
● The wind shrieked through the frozen wasteland, dragging sharp claws of
frost across the land…
🔹 A – Atmosphere & Mood (What feeling does the setting create?)
Use adjectives and figurative language to set an eerie or unsettling tone.
Include shadows, sounds, or an unsettling presence.
Sentence Starters:
● A deathly silence smothered the tundra, broken only by distant, ghostly
whispers…
● The twilight deepened, stretching eerie shadows over the barren snow…
🔹 F – Focus on an Element (Zoom in on one creepy detail!)
Pick one key feature—an object, shadow, sound, or figure—and describe it in detail.
Use personification to make it seem alive.
Sentence Starters:
● The sled tracks twisted behind me, vanishing as if the land sought to erase
my passage…
● The dogs’ breath rose in the air like lost souls, vanishing into the endless
void…
🔹 F – Feelings (How does the character feel?)
Show - don’t tell - emotions (e.g. "Her hands trembled" instead of "She was scared").
Include a physical reaction (shivers, racing heartbeat, held breath).
Sentence Starters:
● A shiver crept through me, colder than the biting wind at my back…
● My breath came in ragged gasps, my pulse hammering against the vast,
uncaring silence…
🔹 L – Little Change (Something shifts—what happens next?)
A small but unsettling change: a flickering light, a shifting shadow, a sudden noise.
This builds tension and mystery without revealing too much.
Sentence Starters:
● The wind faltered, as if holding its breath—then a distant howl shattered the
stillness…
● The sun dipped behind a thick cloud, and the world was swallowed in
shadow…
🔹 E – Edit (Improve with better vocabulary and punctuation!)
Replace boring words (e.g., "scary" → "unnerving," "dark" → "shadow-
cloaked").
Vary sentence lengths to control tension.
Punctuation for effect (e.g. ellipses for suspense: She turned the corner… and
froze.).
Gothic Word Bank
You can use these words to improve your descriptions.
Setting & Atmosphere
● eerie, desolate, bleak, shadowy, misty, frozen, howling wind, endless, isolated
Fear & Mystery
● shiver, whisper, lurking, unseen, unearthly, haunting, watching, creeping,
dread
Supernatural Elements
● ghostly, cursed, cursed, unnatural, sinister, wraith-like, possessed, doomed
(Use this space to add any other words you think of using and don’t want to forget)
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Fill-in-the-Gaps
(Sentence Completion)
Fill in the gaps using the word bank (or your own words) to create your own
sentences and get you started.
The icy landscape was __________ and __________, stretching endlessly into the
distance.
A strange, __________ sound echoed through the air, making the traveler
__________.
Shadows __________ across the snow, moving as if they were __________.