Poetry? Really?

Yes. Reading poetry will help you with your descriptive writing even if your story has nothing to do with roses and violets.

Reading poetry improved my descriptive writing abilities beyond just writing: The fire truck was red. And, in the process of reading poetry I discovered some great poems that will go right to your soul. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Frost, Walt Witman, Max Ehrman, and William Ernest Henley just to name a few, wrote some pretty powerful stuff.

Here are some comparisons that I’m talking about where you can improve on your writing.

“You should appreciate getting old. Think of all you’ve learned.” Max Ehrman describes it this way in Desiderata: “Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.”

Instead of: “He looked off to the horizon.” try, “He scanned the vast ocean to where the clouds floated on the water.”

One last example: “Fair weather clouds so high in the sky kissed orange by a sun still hidden to my eye.” EB Rogers

So, poetry for sure will change the way you incorporate descriptive writing into your story, so you dont have to write, “The sky is blue.”

Keep writing.