By the end of this session, you will be able to : identify descriptive language within the text; use effective adjectives when completing descriptive paragraphs.

Gahan Wilson

From afar the house looked bleak and abandoned, a thing of cold blues and greys and greens, but as I drew nearer a peculiar phenomenon began to assert itself. The windows, which from the sidewalk had seemed only to reflect the moon’s glisten, now began to take on a warmer glow; the walls and porch, which had seemed all shrivelled, peeling paint and leprous patches of rotting wood, now began to appear well kept. I swallowed, and strained my eyes. I had been prepared for a growing feeling of menace, forever darker shadows, and this increasing evidence of warmth and tidiness absolutely baffled me.

Look closely at your text and note some of the adjectives that contribute effectively to the atmosphere of the setting.

By the time I reached the porch steps the place had taken on a positively cosy feel. I now saw that the building was in excellent repair and that it was well painted with a smooth coat of reassuring cream. The light from the windows was now unmistakably cheerful, a ruddy, friendly, pumpkin kind of orange suggesting crackling fireplaces all set and ready for toasting marshmallows. There was a very unwitchlike clump of Indian corn fixed to the front door, and I was almost certain that I detected an odour of sugar and cinnamon wafting into the cold night air.

Look closely at your text and note some of the adjectives that contribute effectively to the atmosphere of the setting.

Her ………house sat on a ……..rise, I remember, with a ………stretch of ………….lawn between it and the ………fence which walled off her property from the sidewalk and the rest of the outside world. The …………..windows of her house peered down at you through a …………tangle of oak tree branches, and I can remember walking by and knowing she was peering out at me, and hunching up my shoulders. It was a …………..night with a …………wind and ………..clouds scudding overhead. The moon was three-quarters full and it looked remarkably round and …………in the sky.

Can you now identify descriptive language within the text? Can you now use effective adjectives when completing a descriptive paragraph?

See Touch Hear Smell Feelings

Work with your partner to write the beginning to your setting. Where is this place? What is this place like? What is the weather like? Introduce your character. How do they feel being in this place?