The descriptive mode of discourse pauses the action to orient the reader in the fiction world and slow emotional pace. One danger with descriptive passages is that if the pace slows too much, the reader might be tempted to skip impatiently over a few sentences or paragraphs of description. A technique to prevent description from slowing the emotional pace too much is to use action verbs in the description. This advice about description came to me from best selling mystery author Elizabeth George, who excels at writing great descriptive passages. The following passage describing King's Cross railroad station comes from his George's mystery novel, a great deliverance. King's Cross was something altogether different, long stretches of tiled floors seductive advertisements hanging from the ceiling.

Newsagents tobacconists hamburger shops and all the people, many more than he had expected in queues for tickets, gobbling down hurried snacks as they raced for trains, arguing, laughing and kissing goodbye. every race, every color. It was all so different. He wasn't sure he could bear the noise and confusion. Lots of verbs here. The feeling of moving people in Kings Cross Station described so eloquently.

Wow, I'm impressed. Do you want to learn to write great descriptive passages, study the passages that make the most impact on you, and try to figure out how the writer did it. In the next video, we'll look at exposition the slowest of the six modes. Thanks for watching.