I dumped a bag of Idaho potatoes on the worktable and told my students to pick one. Their job: describe their potato in as few words as possible. The catch? When they finished, I’d mix all the potatoes back up, and they’d have to identify someone else’s potato based on that writer’s description. That exercise taught me more about precise writing than any book I’ve ever read. Here’s what I learned and four exercises that will sharpen your writing the same way.
The Potato Challenge
I gave my students twenty minutes to write their descriptions. There were many very good attempts, but only one person wrote clearly enough that the others identified their potato. My description was almost clinical. I estimated the potato’s length and diameter and described the one part of it that gave it a unique shape. A double bump that made that end of the potato look like the gap between a plumber’s top and pants when he bent under the sink.
That was the first time I’d ever tried to describe a single potato, but it wasn’t the first time I’d tried to write a description readers could clearly understand, clearly see in their minds. It took practice to get there.
How To Do It
1. Choose one object from a group of similar objects, like a potato, a lemon, or a rock.
2. Write the tightest, most specific description possible.
3. Read it aloud to a friend (in person or on a video call)—can your friend pick the object you described from a half-dozen or more of those objects?
Why This Works
It trains the eye to look for distinguishing details even when those details are imaginary.
Key Takeaway
One precise detail beats ten vague ones.
The Location Description Exercise
When I started writing, I wrote dialogue easily. Description, on the other hand…ugh. So, I repeatedly did an exercise similar to the potato challenge one above. This time, I would go to a location (a park, a building, a street/neighborhood, etc.) and describe it. I would describe it in minute detail without naming the location. (So for a coffee shop you don’t include the word coffee, a library you don’t include the word library, etc.) Then I would go home and remove as many words from my description as possible. I aimed at cutting at least 20% of the number of words I’d written. Then I shared the resulting paragraph with a trusted friend to see if they understood the location I was describing.
How To Do It
1. Go to your favorite coffee shop or a location near you.
2. Write a very detailed description of the location.
3. Return home and cut 10-20% of your words.
4. Read it aloud to a trusted partner or to yourself. Can a friend recognize the location?
Why It Works
This exercise teaches you that ruthless editing can sharpen your writing.
Key Takeaway
A great description isn’t about more words; it’s about the right words.
The People Watching Exercise
Another exercise I used to do to increase my own skills, I would take a notebook and an ink pen to people-watch at a local shopping mall. Note: I did not follow these people around. I just watched them for the space of time it took for them to navigate into and out of my line of sight.
Once they vanished, I’d write a paragraph. An older gentleman in paint-splattered white coveralls crossed my line of sight. In my paragraph, he had just finished a house-painting job out in the heat and humidity and came to the mall on his way home for a gift for his wife on their fiftieth anniversary. He had scrimped and saved to get this gift, earning the last bit necessary at this day’s job, desperate to get this special gift for his wife as a thank you for all her years of love and tender care.
I overheard part of an argument an attractive woman in expensive clothing had on her phone while she ordered a burger with everything on it. In my interpretation, she was having a desperate argument with her manager about how she had to maintain her figure for her modeling career.
How to Do It
1. Choose a busy spot (it could be a park, library, coffee shop, or other place where an assortment of people gather or pass through).
2. Observe a stranger briefly, paying particular attention to that person’s behavior and what sort of character you assume from that behavior until they leave your line of sight (about 30 seconds).
3. Write a paragraph describing the stranger as if they were the protagonist or antagonist in a story with a job, a task, and a problem.
Why It Works
This exercise builds the ability to infer personality, occupation, and inner life from physical cues alone.
Key Takeaway
Real people are the richest source of authentic behavior.
The Emotions Journal
Early in my career, one piece of advice I received from a forgotten book or someone was to journal about my emotions. So I did. I wrote about the events leading up to a time when I became extremely angry. I wrote about how I inhaled sharply when I heard the offending words, then I wheeled around and stomped up the stairs to my bedroom. My chest tightened tighter with every step, my internal thoughts ran a monologue of sharper and sharper rebuttals, my breath changed to heavy huffing, and my face heated.
I feared my loved ones would read these journals when I began keeping them so I placed a disclaiming on the first page of each new journal stating, “I’m practicing writing and what is expressed here is an exploration of a moment in extremes and does not reflect my truest feelings about any person or event.” Borrow that if you also feel that reluctance to write freely.
How to Do It
1. Start a private journal, with a disclaimer on page one if it helps you write more freely.
2. Describe your emotions as soon after the emotional event as possible. Go beyond “I was angry”—describe the buildup or triggering event, what you feel in your chest, behind your eyes, how you breathe, and what stories you told yourself.
3. Revisit these entries when writing emotional scenes for your characters.
Why It Works
Writing out your own experiences helps you understand the connection between the buildup, your mind and your body’s reactions to a particular emotion. This authenticity carries over onto the page even when you also use an emotion thesaurus or other writerly resource to write your scenes.
Key Takeaway
If you don’t feel it, neither will your readers.
Make It Your Habit
Skills go dormant without use. A carpenter who trades his hammer for a nail gun loses his hammering skills—writers are no different. So pick one of the above exercises and try it before the week is out. The potato challenge needs only a bag of potatoes and a friend. The emotions journal needs only today’s emotional moment and something to write on. Or, choose to get out of the house and do the people-watching or location description exercise. If you feel these aren’t what you need, take a look at my list of writing resources for additional exercises. Either way, start with one exercise this week, then come back and tell me what you found.
Share your results from one of these exercises one writing OR share a different exercise that has helped improve your writing skills.
Both images above purchased from DepositPhotos.