Descriptive Writing

**m*@aol.com**

Sheri: Here are?two?methods I use to find fresh descriptions. The first is to look at what work/play the plant does in the garden. What need does it fulfill? (Needs can be as solid as a groundcover that thrives in heavy clay, or as fluffy as a romantic evening scent.) With this, I'm searching for stronger verbs to work as descriptors, not more adjectives. The second?process is to develop analogy or metaphor. Compare/connect the plant to something else in a fresh way-- such as--conifers are your storm weather friends. The comparisons don't have to be high-flying literary masterpieces. Sunset magazine sent me to cover a garden makeover a year after it had won the Oprah Nightmare Garden contest--nothing newsworthy, except that?the garden?was still living (a rare feat with rushed jobs). So I called it a Cinderella garden that lived happily ever after. Then Oprah?could be?a fairy godmother, and I had?lots of descriptors related to the comparison. Made it easy to write.

Mary-Kate Mackey

Co-author Sunset Secret Gardens
Contributor Sunset's Western Garden Book, 2007
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