How to create DEPTH in your writing (easy method to make your novels and stories more immersive!)

lack of depth is a story killer no one wants their writing to feel really shallow and surface level creating depth in your writing makes all the difference for your reader it makes your story feel far more immersive and it just makes you seem like a more accomplished writer but how do you create depth how do you make your characters and your worlds feel like more than something you just came up with five minutes ago i asked myself those same questions this week when i was writing a story so i thought i'd share my approach to bringing depth to my writing in case it's useful for anybody else i'm going to talk through how i add depth to both characters and settings with a few examples from the story so let's get started it would probably make sense if i start with what i mean by depth i'm not talking about backstory or law or any of that stuff for me depth isn't really about writing tomes and tomes of backstory or this encyclopedia of the workings of your novel the depth i'm talking about is in the here and now of reading it's the kind of depth that you feel in the moment as you're reading a story it's making the characters and the world of your story feel to the reader as though they would be there whether they were reading this story or not it's when characters feel as though you're catching a small moment in a much wider life as opposed to just a character existing on the page for the purposes of the story it's hard to explain exactly what i mean but you know it when you see it or more often when you don't let's have a look at an example of how not to bring depth to a character and then we'll do the same thing for locations in a bit by the way the story this week is called red light and heat and rush so something that seems like it would bring a lot of depth to a character is detail it does seem to make sense the more information you can give your reader about a character and the more details and facts and stuff then the more depth there's gonna be to that character but i don't typically find that it works that way personally when i'm reading the more information and facts that are thrown at me about a character the less immersed i feel take this example of characterization using a lot of details this is something that i could have written in my story davey had a nervous disposition he often worried about things being a police officer probably wasn't the best career path for him he looked visibly nervous and he sounded like he lacked confidence when he was doing his job so it's not terrible we do learn something about the character here at least but it just feels really thin there's not much presence to the character he doesn't feel like a real person there's no life to him all of that information is quite a lot for the reader to take on board considering it doesn't really have much effect on them so that's not what i wrote i actually gave a lot less information in my description i wanted the reader to have a snapshot into this wider life that the character has i wanted it to feel as though he would still be there whether they were reading the story or not if you can do it well showing the tip of an iceberg to a reader will allow them to see the rest of the mass of it underneath the water without you having to detail exactly how big or how white or how frozen it is that's what i tried to do with this character description here's what i actually wrote something was up davey was worried he pretty much always sounded worried it was like he'd accidentally found himself a police officer one day and was living in constant fear of a crime happening i feel like this description gives more of a sense of who this character is than just a list of things about him it feels like there's more history to his life and i'm not just throwing facts at you it's a less is more kind of thing i suppose it's not about how much detail i'm giving it's about how i'm giving that detail i often see other writers talking about character charts or character profiles where they've written everything that they know about character down and i think that can be hugely useful for writers i just want to make sure i was using that information as effectively as possible if all of that stuff you've written down is for you the writer to get to know your character and understand them and give you a sense of direction when you're writing that seems really smart but i'd say if you're using it more like a checklist of things to bring up about your character and to tell your reader then the effect of that might not be as informative as you might expect it might not be as immersive as you might expect either and it might not actually bring you much depth to your character of course i can only speak for myself on my own writing but i think two or three tactically deployed really vivid details will bring more depth to a character than a constant stream of smaller details by all means know your characters and plan out their entire lives if that's what you want to do but use all of that information that you're writing down to inform your own impression of your character so that you can just write down the condensed version and allow the readers to see the tip of that iceberg and fill in the rest of it for themselves here's another example then another character from the same story here's the version with too much detail and not enough depth jed was 16 so he was supposed to be interested in drinking and maybe drugs he should have been rebelling against his parents and wanting to be a rock star or a gangster instead he wished for more peace and quiet and to be left alone and not have anyone try to make trouble again lots of information but it's more words than it is person it's more language than character we don't know who this person is because he's hidden behind so much description here's what i wrote instead the jukebox was trying to sell him another life as he passed it one filled with a load of things he was supposed to want at 16 years old but that actually terrified him he doubled back and pulled the power cable out in this version the character is far more present in the scene it's less of a departure from the action of the story and it says some stuff about the what kind of person he is without just saying it he feels more alive and more like a real person all of the extra detail from the first version is still there we just don't need to say it outright everybody knows what teenagers are supposed to want so i don't need to detail all of that for a reader and like i said before this concept of small details that bring depth works equally as well in exactly the same way for locations too lacing a setting with loads of description can overwhelm a reader and actually lead them to see less of the place than you'd intended or it can steer them so much that the scene just feels like a cardboard cutout or nothing more than just a stage that you're using to tell your story which of course it is but it doesn't have to feel like that the same as with characters just piling on more and more information often doesn't lead to a more vivid imagining of the scene here's another example from my story of a scene with loads of descriptions that still lacks depth davey sat in the quiet police station there were fluorescent lights and a stained white wall the carpets were grey there was a reception desk with some computers on it and an old coffee machine in the corner as i keep saying there's nothing hugely wrong with that but the location just doesn't feel lived in it doesn't feel like there's much life to it doesn't feel like there's any history to it it just feels like it's there because it has to be despite all of the information that i've given i've still not really made much of an impact on the reader or not much of an impression on the reader because it lacks depth that description is a room for my story but that's not what i really said just like with the characters i wanted to say less but create more depth so here's what i actually said jed pictured davey across the road sitting behind the desk in the station reception glare from the monitors on his face grey carpet under fluorescent bulbs the coffee maker with the red and green leds but the green one doesn't work anymore so you have to just guess for me the small details of the glare on davey's face and the coffee machine with the broken light in the corner just give more character to the room and bring more depth to it it feels like stuff's happened there before and stuff still happens there it feels more inhabited even though i've said less about it let's look at one more example another room for my story here's the too much detail and not enough depth version the phone was in the storeroom there were shelves of cleaning supplies drinks cans and packaged food there were no windows and the lights weren't on in there so jed couldn't see much as they talked lots of information but do i feel as though i'm there no i don't even really feel as though jed is there this description is strange it kind of holds the reader at arm's length in a way i want more depth something shorter that makes this place feel far more real here's what i actually wrote jed clutched the phone standing in a strip of light from the other room among the boxes and barrels that were yet to be drunk we're told less but we see more it occurs to me now of course that this might just be the way i perceive things it might be the way i write and the way i like to read but it feels as though this is far better than just listing a lot of information for me the way to add depth to your story is to use two or three really vivid details about a character or about a location to bring it to life rather than sprinkling in a lot of surface level details that don't really paint much of a picture by all means come up with all of those details just be selective about when and where you use them use two or three to create a really strong image in your reader's mind rather than sprinkling in loads of different bits that don't really add up to the same impact at least that's what i do anyway if you're interested in writing flash fiction i've got an online course which is my start to finish approach the link is in the description down below if you want to join a like-minded community of writers we've got a free discord server links in the description for that too let me know what you think of this video thank you so much for watching happy writing

Channel: Kieren Westwood

Views: 37,821

Keywords: how to create depth in your writing, how to make your writing more immersive, create depth in writing, creating depth in writing, depth in novels, depth in stories, create depth in stories, depth in creative writing, make writing more immersive, better description writing, writing advice, kieren westwood, writing a novel, create depth in novel, writing, immersive writing, how to write a novel, writing advice plot, writing a book tips, creative writing ideas, write a book

Id: LOl5scn7H4o

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020